Three-dimensional vision system

A three-dimensional vision system, comprising:

• three-dimensional vision means having a projector for projecting slit-like light defining a plane onto an object during a first operational state and projecting no slit-like light upon the object during a second operational state, having an image sensor including an array of pixels for detecting images of the object from a direction inclined against the plane and coverting the images of the object into image signals, and sensor signal reading means for reading the image signals, said images of the object including a slit image resulting from illumination of the object with the slit-like light during said first operational state and a background image occurring while no slit-like light is projected by aid projector onto the object;
• scanning control means for sequentially controlling over each of a plurality of scanning lines, the presence of said slit-like light emanating from the projector during said first operational state and the absence of said slit-like light during said second operational state, and for controlling the reading of image signals from said sensor signal reading means to provide image signals representing one of said images detected during said first operational state and one of said images formed during said second operational state for each of said plurality of scanning lines;
• converter means for converting the image signals into digital signals;
• memory means for storing the digital signals read-out from the sensor signal reading means;
• differential signal extracting means controlled by said scanning control means and coupled to said converter means and said memory means, for sequentially sampling the digital signals formed from said image signals for each of said scanning lines during both of said operational states, and for extracting a differential image signal for each of said scanning lines from the digital signals formed for each of said scanning lines;
• light segmentation line extracting means including means for extracting a position corresponding to the maximum value of said differential image signal along each of said scanning lines for extracting a light segmentation line from each said differential image signal obtained by the differential signal extracting means;
• and
• an image processor for recognizing the three-dimensional shape of the object in accordance with the light segmentation line extracted by the light segmentation line extracting means.

A three-dimensional vision system, comprising:

• three-dimensional vision means for projecting planar light beams on objects to-be-handled and for reading from an array of pixels, image signals representing resulting images of the objects occurring over a plurality of scanning lines, with a first one of said images in each of said scanning lines being a resulting image occurring during illumination of the objects with projected slit-like light and a second one of said images being a background image occurring in the same scanning line during the absence of illumination of the objects with said slit-like light;
• an image input portion which sequentially controls illumination of objects by the light beams to provide one image of the objects during the first operational state and another image of the object during the second operational state for each one of said scanning lines, controls the reading of the images, and which performs extraction processing to obtain differential signals for each of said scanning lines from the image signals read representing a resulting slit image of the object along said scanning lines and representing the background image of the object along corresponding scanning lines;
• means for extracting a position corresponding to a maximum value among said differential signals for each of said scanning lines;
• means for determining a light segmentation line from each one of said differential signals extracted by said input portion;
• and
• an image processor can recognize a three-dimensional shape of the object on the basis of a plurality of said light segmentation line extracted from said differential signals and the positions corresponding to the maximum value of each one of said differential signals.