Borehole instrument for borehole profiling and imaging

A borehole instrument comprising:

• a housing sized and shaped to fit inside a borehole;
• a window;
• an image sensor disposed within the housing and configured to capture images of an inside wall of the borehole through the window;
• at least one illumination light source disposed within the housing and configured to direct illumination light through the window to the inside wall of the borehole;
• a laser light source disposed within the housing and configured to emit laser light;
• laser-shaping optics configured to shaped emitted laser light into a sheet directed through the window to the inside wall of the borehole;
• capturing optics positioned to direct image light reflected from the inside wall onto the image sensor and positioned to direct laser light reflected from the inside wall onto the image sensor;
• a data processing subsystem coupled to the image sensor and configured to receive image data from the image sensor, the image data representative of images of the inside wall of the borehole, the data processing subsystem further configured to capture borehole profile data from images containing laser light reflected from the inside wall of the borehole;
• and
• a computer connected to the data processing subsystem, wherein the data processing subsystem is configured to transmit the image data, the borehole profile data, or both the image data and the borehole profile data to the computer.

A method for capturing data from a borehole, the method comprising:

• illuminating an inside wall of the borehole;
• emitting laser light onto the inside wall of the borehole;
• capturing images of the inside wall of the borehole to obtain captured images that are represented by image data;
• processing the image data to extract borehole profile data from laser light present in the captured images;
• and
• performing the illuminating, the emitting of laser light, and the capturing of images during a single pass of the borehole.