Rapid coherent synthetic wavelength interferometric absolute distance measurement

A system for rapid coherent synthetic wavelength interferometric absolute distance measurement, comprising:

• an optical system;
• a controller;
• and
• a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to:
• receive, from the optical system, an image from an object scene of at least two distinct wavelengths of light, each wavelength's light source having a coherence length greater than a desired ambiguity length of the absolute distance measurement, and whose synthetic wavelength in combination provides the desired ambiguity length of the absolute distance measurement;
• determine either a phase or a magnitude of an interference signal for each wavelength of light measured individually or an envelope of a magnitude of a sum of the interference signal for both wavelengths measured together, for interference between light returning from the object scene and light traversing a separate reference arm path of the optical system;
• and
• calculate an optical distance to an object in the object scene from the phase or the magnitude of the interference signal for each wavelength of light measured individually or the envelope of the magnitude of the sum of the interference signal for both wavelengths measured together, the absolute distance measurement comprising the calculated optical distance to the object.