US 5,703,677 A · Single lens range imaging method and apparatus

Abstract

A single lens range sensor comprises a camera 27 having a pair of plano-convex lenses 28a and 28b, an optical mask 30, an imaging sensor 32, a digitizer 34 and a computer 36. The optical mask 30 may be implemented with a liquid crystal array having spatially varying opacity which can be switched (e.g., by the computer 36) between masks derived from a differentiable mask function and its derivative. Alternatively, the mask 30 may be composed of two printed masks which are mechanically switched to obtain two images based on the differentiable mask function and its derivative. The imaging sensor 32 may be implemented with a CCD array. The invention avoids the correspondence problems of the two camera and moving camera approaches, and is simple to calibrate.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A single lens range sensor for determining range information, comprising:

(a) a lens;
(b) an optical sensor constructed and arranged to sense optical energy travelling from a visual scene through said lens;
(c) at least one optical mask for alternately providing first and second mask functions for masking said sensor to prevent a portion of said optical energy from reaching said sensor, said mask functions being based on at least a differentiable function and a derivative of said differentiable function;
and
(d) range determination means for forming an aperture derivative image of an object in said visual scene, and for determining the range of said object on the basis of at least said aperture derivative image.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Single lens range imaging method and apparatus

Life of this patent

Single lens range imaging method and apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10