Orientation determination

• US 7,054,466 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2002
• Issued: 05/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lowe, Anthony Cyril, Knox, Andrew Ramsay
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Jingge
• Assistant Examiner(s): MACKOWEY, ANTHONY M
• Application Number:
  US10/202,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20040017931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,406 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/104, 382/199, 382/203, 382/291, 701/28, 348/113, 901/46, 901/47
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods

Abstract

An improved orientation system includes a lens pre-distorting an image generated by imaging apparatus such that a non-linearity, the degree of which is dependent on the off-axis distance of an imaged object, is generated so as to increase the strength of a signal indicating said non-linearity.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

imaging apparatus for producing an image of a remote object;

a lens located between the remote object and the imaging apparatus, the lens intentionally introducing a non-linearity into the produced image, the introduced non-linearity being dependent upon the distance of the remote object from the central axis of the imaging apparatus; and

processing apparatus for processing the produced image to determine the orientation of the object relative to the system by using the introducing non-linearity.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processing apparatus uses outlines, edges or corners derived from the produced image to determine orientation.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processing apparatus uses successive frame of the image to determine relative motion.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the orientation information from the processing apparatus is used to provide feedback in a servo system.

5. A method of determining orientation relative to a remote object, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an image of the remote object;

producing a non-linearity in the received image, the degree of non-linearity being dependent on the distance of the remote object from a central axis;

producing an image of the remote object, the image including the introduced non-linearity;

processing the produced image by using the non-linearity in the image to determine orientation.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the step of processing the produced image includes the step of deriving outlines, image or corners from the produced image.

7. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the step of processing the produced image includes the step of using successive frames of the produced image to determine relative motion.

8. A method as claimed in claim 5 further comprising the step of transmitting the determined orientation information to a feedback system to provide modification of the orientation.