Associating three-dimensional coordinates with two-dimensional feature points

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the processing system including at least one processor, wherein, when executed by the processing system, the instructions cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• causing a light projecting system of a distance sensor to project a three-dimensional pattern of light onto an object, wherein the three-dimensional pattern of light comprises a plurality of points of light that collectively forms the pattern;
• causing a light receiving system of the distance sensor to acquire an image of the three-dimensional pattern of light projected onto the object;
• causing the light receiving system to acquire a two-dimensional image of the object;
• detecting a feature point in the two-dimensional image of the object;
• identifying an interpolation area for the feature point;
• and
• computing three-dimensional coordinates for the feature point by interpolating using three-dimensional coordinates of two points of the plurality of points that are within the interpolation area.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processing system;
• and
• a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the processing system, wherein, when executed, the instructions cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• causing a light projecting system of a distance sensor to project a three-dimensional pattern of light onto an object, wherein the three-dimensional pattern of light comprises a plurality of points of light that collectively forms the pattern;
• causing a light receiving system of the distance sensor to acquire an image of the three-dimensional pattern of light projected onto the object;
• causing the light receiving system to acquire a two-dimensional image of the object;
• detecting a feature point in the two-dimensional image of the object;
• identifying an interpolation area for the feature point;
• and
• computing three-dimensional coordinates for the feature point by interpolating using three-dimensional coordinates of two points of the plurality of points that are within the interpolation area.