Methods and apparatus for an active pulsed 4D camera for image acquisition and analysis
First Claim
1. An active pulsed four-dimensional (4D) camera system for acquiring information about a scene comprising:
- at least one emitter configured to generate and emit light within a defined frequency range throughout a field of view of the scene, wherein the emitted light is an active sequence of pulses;
an array of detectors configured to receive light within the defined frequency range for a field of view of the array, the field of view of the scene defined by the field of view of the array and each detector in the array having an individual field of view that is a different subset of the field of view of the array;
control circuitry operably coupled to the at least one emitter and the array of detectors and configured to cause the at least one emitter to begin to emit the active sequence of pulses at a first time and to cause the array of detectors to begin to receive light at a second time after the first time in an emitter/detector cycle, wherein the control circuitry is configured to vary an elapsed time between the first time and the second time in K successive emitter/detector cycles, wherein K is greater than 4 and a total elapsed time of the K successive emitter/detector cycles is less than 50 microseconds; and
a processing system operably coupled to the array of detectors and the control circuitry and configured to;
generate and store digital information corresponding to light received by each detector in the array of detectors, the digital information for each detector in the array of detectors being sampled and stored in one of K frame buffers corresponding to one of the K emitter/detector cycles, andanalyze the digital information for each detector and construct a representation of at least a portion of the scene based at least in part on time-of-flight (TOF) data in the digital information corresponding to the sequence of pulses received by different ones of the K frame buffers and on relative timing differences of the sequence of pulses for each of the K emitter/detector cycles.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An active-pulsed four-dimensional camera system that utilizes a precisely-controlled light source produces spatial information and human-viewed or computer-analyzed images. The acquisition of four-dimensional optical information is performed at a sufficient rate to provide accurate image and spatial information for in-motion applications where the camera is in motion and/or objects being imaged, detected and classified are in motion. Embodiments allow for the reduction or removal of image-blocking conditions like fog, snow, rain, sleet and dust from the processed images. Embodiments provide for operation in daytime or nighttime conditions and can be utilized for day or night full-motion video capture with features like shadow removal. Multi-angle image analysis is taught as a method for classifying and identifying objects and surface features based on their optical reflective characteristics.
383 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An active pulsed four-dimensional (4D) camera system for acquiring information about a scene comprising:
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at least one emitter configured to generate and emit light within a defined frequency range throughout a field of view of the scene, wherein the emitted light is an active sequence of pulses; an array of detectors configured to receive light within the defined frequency range for a field of view of the array, the field of view of the scene defined by the field of view of the array and each detector in the array having an individual field of view that is a different subset of the field of view of the array; control circuitry operably coupled to the at least one emitter and the array of detectors and configured to cause the at least one emitter to begin to emit the active sequence of pulses at a first time and to cause the array of detectors to begin to receive light at a second time after the first time in an emitter/detector cycle, wherein the control circuitry is configured to vary an elapsed time between the first time and the second time in K successive emitter/detector cycles, wherein K is greater than 4 and a total elapsed time of the K successive emitter/detector cycles is less than 50 microseconds; and a processing system operably coupled to the array of detectors and the control circuitry and configured to; generate and store digital information corresponding to light received by each detector in the array of detectors, the digital information for each detector in the array of detectors being sampled and stored in one of K frame buffers corresponding to one of the K emitter/detector cycles, and analyze the digital information for each detector and construct a representation of at least a portion of the scene based at least in part on time-of-flight (TOF) data in the digital information corresponding to the sequence of pulses received by different ones of the K frame buffers and on relative timing differences of the sequence of pulses for each of the K emitter/detector cycles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of acquiring information about a scene using an active pulsed four-dimensional (4D) camera system, the method comprising:
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emitting light from the 4D camera system as an active sequence of pulses of light within a defined frequency range throughout a field of view of the scene; after a first elapsed time from a start of the emitting, detecting light by the 4D camera system within the defined frequency range for the field of view; converting the light from the detecting to digital information; and storing the digital information in one of K frame buffers in the 4D camera system; repeating the emitting, the detecting, the converting and the storing for K successive cycles with a second elapsed time between the emittings in successive cycles, wherein the first elapsed time and the second elapsed time vary between each of the K successive cycles, wherein K is greater than 4; and analyzing the digital information stored in the K frame buffers and constructing a digital representation of at least a portion of the scene based at least in part on time-of-flight (TOF) data in the digital information corresponding to the sequence of pulses received by different ones of the K frame buffers and on relative timing differences of the sequence of pulses for each of the K successive cycles. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An active-pulsed four-dimensional (4D) camera system for acquiring information from a scene comprising:
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at least one emitter configured to emit K successive cycles of a plurality of active light pulses throughout the scene, wherein a time between a start of one of the K successive cycles and a start of a next one of the K successive cycles is varied throughout the K successive cycles; an array of detectors configured to receive reflected light related to the active light pulses emitted in each of the K successive cycles, wherein a time between the start of emitting the light pulses and a start of receiving reflected light is varied in each of the K successive cycles; and a plurality of buffers configured to store digital information related to the reflected light received by the array of detectors; and a processing system operably coupled to the plurality of buffers and configured to; analyze the digital information to determine distance information and color information for the scene based at least in part on the time between the start of one of the K successive cycles and the start of the next one of the K successive cycles being varied throughout the K successive cycles, and construct a digital representation of the scene based on the determined distance information and the determined color information.
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Specification