Apparatus and methods of generation of textures with depth buffers

• US 20030031360A1
• Filed: 08/07/2002
• Published: 02/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Southwest Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Southwest Research Institute
• Inventors: Peterson, Eric Conrad, Logan, Ryan Converse, Franke, Ernest August
• Granted Patent: US 7,164,785 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77

Abstract

A three dimensional (3-D) image is generated from a plurality of portions of an image of an object, each captured portion of the image is based on a scan width of an image capture device. A range finding device obtains at least one range data value for each captured portion of the image as at least one corresponding position in each captured portions of the image, and a base to which the image capture device and the range finding device are mounted moves in increments based on the scan width of the image capture device.

Claims

1. A system usable to capture a three dimensional (3-D) image data, comprising:

an image capture device that captures a plurality of portions of an image of an object, each captured portion of the image is based on a scan width of the image capture device;

a range finding device that obtains at least one range data value for each captured portion of the image as at least one corresponding position in each captured portions of the image; and

a base to which the image capture device and the range finding device are mounted, the base adapted to moves in increments based on the scan width of the image capture device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a control system that controls an operation of the image capture device, an operation of the range finding device and a movement of the base.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprises a memory usable to store the plurality of captured portions of the image and the at least one range data corresponding to the at least one position in each captured portion of the image.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a processing system that processes the plurality of captured portions of the target image and the at least one range data corresponding to the at least one position in the captured portions of the image to form a 3-D image.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a display coupled to the processing system to display the 3-D image.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the image capture device captures a portion of the image of the object in one-dimension.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the image capture device captures a portion of the image of the object in two-dimension.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the scan width of the image capture device is variable.

9. A system usable to capture a three-dimensional (3-D) image data, comprising:

a base;

an image capture device mounted on base;

a range finding device mounted on the base such that a range data value read by the range finding device corresponds to a position in a captured image of the image capture device; and

a motor to rotate the base in angular step increment that is no larger than a scan width of the image capture device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the scan width of the image capture device is variable.

11. A method of generating a three-dimensional (3-D) image data comprising:

capturing a portion of an image of an object;

obtaining at least one range value for the captured portion of the image as at least one corresponding position in the captured portion of the image; and

assembling the captured portion of the image with a previously captured portion of the image of the object.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

assembling the obtained at least one range value for the captured portion of the image with a previously obtained at least one range value for the previously captured portion of the image, the assembly based on at least one corresponding position in the captured portion of the image and the at least one corresponding position of the previously captured portion of the image.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

processing the assembled captured portions of the image and the assembled at least one range value for captured portions of the image into a 3-D image.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

displaying the 3-D image.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein capturing a portion of an image includes capturing the portion of the image in one-dimension.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein capturing a portion of an image includes capturing the portion of the image in two-dimension.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

moving in step increment to capture a next portion of the image of the object.