Interrogation of an object for dimensional and topographical information

• US 6,507,309 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2001
• Issued: 01/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Original Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Inventors: McMakin, Doug L., Sheen, David M., Severtsen, Ronald H., Hall, Thomas E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Andrea, Brian
• Application Number:
  US09/810,054
• Publication Number:
  US 20020130804A1
• Time in Patent Office: 669 Days
• Field of Search: 342/22, 342/179, 367/8
• US Class Current: 342/22
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of radio waves, e.g. radar systems; Analogous systems using reflection or reradiation of waves whose nature or wavelength is irrelevant or unspecified
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/887 for detection of concealed objects, e.g. contraband or weapons
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/20 Stereoscopic displays; Three-dimensional displays; Pseudo-three-dimensional displays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/41 using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation; Target signature; Target cross-section
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods, devices, and apparatus to interrogate a clothed individual with electromagnetic radiation to determine one or more body measurements at least partially covered by the individual'"'"'s clothing. The invention further includes techniques to interrogate an object with electromagnetic radiation in the millimeter and/or microwave range to provide a volumetric representation of the object. This representation can be used to display images and/or determine dimensional information concerning the object.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

irradiating a body at least partially covered with clothing;

detecting electromagnetic radiation reflected from a surface of the body through the clothing in response to said irradiating; and

determining a measurement of the body corresponding to the surface from the electromagnetic radiation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is selected from a frequency range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said irradiating and said detecting are performed for each of a number of different portions of the body to provide a number of data sets each corresponding to a different view of the body, and said determining includes providing a volumetric representation of the different portions of the body from the data sets.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising displaying an image of the body determined from the volumetric representation.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the measurement is a circumference of the body determined from the volumetric representation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the body is of a person and the surface corresponds to skin of the person, and further comprising rendering a sectional image of the person at least partially bounded by the skin.

7. A method, comprising:

interrogating a person with electromagnetic radiation having at least one frequency in a range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz; and

determining a measurement along a skin surface of the person from said interrogating.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the skin surface is beneath clothing during said interrogating.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising performing said interrogating with a sensing array and rotating at least one of the array and the person relative to an axis to irradiate different portions of the person during said interrogating.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the measurement corresponds to a circumference of the person about the axis.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein said interrogating includes changing frequency of the electromagnetic radiation over a range of at least about 10 GHz.

12. A method, comprising:

interrogating an object with electromagnetic radiation including one or more frequencies in a range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz for each of a number of different views of the object;

determining a number of data sets each representative of a cylindrical image of the object for a respective one of the different views; and

combining the data sets to generate a topographical representation of the object corresponding to the different views.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising rendering a two-dimensional image of the object from the topographical representation.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the topographical representation defines at least one circumference of the object.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said object is a clothed person and the image includes a skin surface of the person positioned beneath clothing during said irradiating and said detecting.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining one or more measurements of the object from the topographical representation.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising rendering a number of two-dimensional images from the topographical representation and displaying the images to provide a rotating animation of the object.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining sectional image data from the topographical representation.

19. A system, comprising:

an array to interrogate a person with electromagnetic radiation in a frequency range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz; and

one or more processors responsive to said array to determine a body measurement of the person, the body measurement corresponding to a skin surface of the person at least partially covered by clothing during interrogation with said array.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a display device responsive to said one or more processors to provide at least one image corresponding to the person.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising a platform proximate to said array to support the person and a motor to rotate at least one of said array and said platform about an axis.

22. The system of claim 19, further comprising a computer network coupled to said one or more processors and a remote computer, said one or more processors being operable to transmit data corresponding to the body measurement to said remote computer over said computer network.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein said one or more processors are further operable to determine a volumetric representation of the person from a number of data sets, said data sets each corresponding to a different view of the person.

24. A device carrying one or more signals, the one or more signals comprising:

logic to operate one or more processors, said logic being operable to process data corresponding to a number of different portions of a body interrogated with electromagnetic radiation in a frequency range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz, said logic being further operable to provide a topographical representation of the body from the data and determine one or more body measurements from the topographical representation.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein the device is in the form of a removable, processor-readable memory and said logic is in the form of a number of instructions for the one or more processors stored in said memory.

26. The device of claim 24, wherein the device includes one or more parts of a computer network and said logic is encoded in the one or more signals for transmission over said computer network.

27. The device of claim 24, wherein said data includes a number of different sets each corresponding to a different arc segment of a cylinder.

28. The device of claim 24, wherein at least one of the one or more body measurements corresponds to a body circumference determined from the topographical representation with said logic.

29. The device of claim 24, wherein said logic is further operable to define sectional image data from the topographical representation to provide a sectional image of the body.

30. A method, comprising:

irradiating an object;

detecting electromagnetic radiation reflected by the object in response to said irradiating, the electromagnetic radiation being in a frequency range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz; and

determining a circumferential measurement of the object from the electromagnetic radiation.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said irradiating is performed with a sensing array and further comprising rotating at least one of the object and the array.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein said determining includes establishing a volumetric representation of the object from data corresponding to a number of different images of the object.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the object is a clothed person and the circumferential measurement is along a skin surface of the person at least partially covered by clothing during said irradiating.

34. The method of claim 30, further comprising providing a visualization of the object with an indicator corresponding to the circumferential measurement.

35. A system, comprising:

at least one array to interrogate an object with electromagnetic radiation at one or more frequencies in a range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz;

one or more processors responsive to said array, said one or more processors being operable to;

establish a number of data sets each representative of a three-dimensional image of a different one of a number of portions of the object;

map the data sets to a topographical representation of the object, the topographical representation corresponding to a surface of the object defined by each of the portions of the object; and

process the topographical representation to provide an output; and

a device responsive to said output.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein said output represents to one or more measurements of the object.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the object is a clothed person and the output includes an image of a skin surface of the person positioned beneath clothing during said interrogating.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the data sets each correspond to a different arc segment of a cylinder about the object.

39. The system of claim 35, wherein the output includes a number of two-dimensional images rendered from the representation by said one or more processors.

40. A method, comprising:

providing a sensing array and one or more processors coupled to the array;

interrogating an object with electromagnetic radiation from the array, a frequency of the electromagnetic radiation being in a range of about 200 MHz to about 1 THz;

generating data representative of the object from said interrogating with the one or more processors, the data corresponding to one or more lineal measurements of the object; and

transmitting the data over a computer network to a remote site.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the object is a person at least partially covered by clothing and the data includes one or more lineal body measurements about the person.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the data corresponds to a topographical representation of at least a portion of the object.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the computer network includes the internet and said transmitting includes sending the data with a network server coupled to the one or more processors and the computer network.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the frequency is in a range of about 5 GHz to about 110 GHz, and further comprising changing the frequency by at least 10 GHz during said interrogating.

45. The method of claim 40, further comprising sending information representative of at least one of the one or more measurements from a computer at the remote site to a different site coupled to the computer network.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the object is a clothed person, the one or more measurements correspond to body measurements to size clothing, and the different site corresponds to a clothing business.

47. The method of claim 40, wherein the data corresponds to a circumference of at least a portion of the object.

48. The method of claim 40, further comprising manufacturing a two-dimensional clothing pattern based on the data.