Camera for generating and recording object data with the recorded image

An electronic camera, comprising

• an image sensor for capturing an image and producing image data;
• a scanner for generating object data indicating the relative distance from the camera of a plurality of objects within the image;
• an output section;
• and
• an electronic processing section for transferring the image data and the object data for the plurality of objects to the output section.

An electronic camera, comprising:

• an image sensor for capturing an image and producing image data;
• a rangefinder for generating ranging data indicating the distance from the camera of a plurality of objects within the image;
• an output section;
• and
• an electronic processing section for transferring the image data and the ranging data for the plurality of objects to the output section.

A system for processing an image in order to describe scene objects, said system comprising:

• means for scanning a plurality of scene objects within an image and generating ranging data indicating the relative distance from the camera of the objects within the image;
• means for capturing the image;
• means for transferring the image data and the ranging data for the plurality of objects to a processing section;
• and means for operating the processing section to extract features and thereby describe scene objects.

A method for processing an image in order to extract features and describe scene objects, said method comprising the steps of:

• scanning a plurality of scene objects within an image and generating ranging data indicating the relative distance from the camera of the objects within the image;
• capturing the image data;
• transferring the image and the ranging data for the plurality of objects to a processing section;
• and operating the processing section to extract features and thereby describe scene objects.

A method for processing an image in order to extract features and describe scene objects, said method comprising the steps of:

• capturing an image of the scene objects and generating image data;
• scanning the scene objects and generating object data indicating the relative location of the objects within the image;
• performing edge detection and analysis of the image data and generating edge data;
• performing texture analysis of the image data and generating texture data;
• performing color analysis of the image data and generating color data;
• performing depth analysis on the object data and generating depth data;
• and
• generating an estimate of the range and boundary of an object in the image from a combination of the edge, texture, color, and depth data.

A photographic camera, comprising:

• means for capturing and recording an image;
• a scanner for generating object data indicating the location of objects within the image;
• and
• an electronic processing section for generating a two-dimensional array of numerical values corresponding to the relative distances of respective objects from the camera and combining the array of numerical values with the recorded image in order to facilitate feature extraction and description of the objects.