Scanning arrangement and method
AssigneeTricorder Technology PLC
InventorsGuy Richard John Fowler, Christopher Peter Flockhart
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A scanning arrangement has a device (40) for projecting a two-dimensional optical pattern on a surface (35) of a scanned object. A two-dimensional photodetector (34') is mounted within a hand-held scanning device and outputs scan files of 3D coordinate data of overlapping surface portions of the object. The surface portions defined by these scan files are registered by appropriate rotations and translations in a computer, which are determined either from the outputs of a gyroscope (51) and an accelerometer (50) or by mathematical processing of the surface portions, e.g., involving detecting and location of common features.
Claims33
A scanning arrangement for determining three-dimensional surface characteristics of an object, the arrangement comprising a scanning device which is freely movable relative to said object, the device comprising:
- a) an optical projector for projecting a predetermined pattern onto a region of the surface of the object, and
- b) an optical detector for detecting the surface characteristics of said region and for generating output signals representative of such surface characteristics,
- the arrangement further including:
- c) processing means coupled to said detector for generating a set of output data representing said surface characteristics of a scanned portion of the surface of said object,
- d) combining means coupled to said processing means for combining sets of such output data derived from overlapping scans of said surface into a common set of output data by appropriate rotations and translations, said combining means including further processing means for calculating said rotations and translations from subsets of respective sets of such output data which relate to a common area of said surface, and
- e) correcting means responsive to output data from said further processing means for correcting for movement of said scanning device relative to said object between successive scans.
A scanning arrangement for determining three-dimensional surface characteristics of an object, the arrangement comprising a scanning device which is freely movable relative to said object, the device comprising:
- a) an optical projector for projecting a predetermined pattern onto a region of the surface of the object, and
- b) an optical detector for detecting the surface characteristics of said region and for generating output signals representative of such surface characteristics,
- the arrangement further including:
- c) processing means coupled to said detector for generating a set of output data representing said surface characteristics of a scanned portion of the surface of said object,
- d) combining means coupled to said processing means for combining sets of such output data derived from overlapping scans of said surface into a common set of output data by appropriate rotations and translations,
- e) inertial sensing means for detecting movement of said scanning device relative to said object and generating motion output signals representative of such movement, and
- f) correcting means responsive to said motion output signals from said inertial sensing means for correcting for movement of said scanning device relative to said object between successive scans.
A scanning arrangement for determining the shape of an object, the arrangement comprising a scanning device, said scanning device comprising:
- a) an optical projector for projecting a predetermined pattern onto a region of the surface of the object, and
- b) an optical detector for detecting the coordinates of said region and for generating output signals representative of such coordinates,
- the arrangement further including:
- c) processing means coupled to said detector for generating a set of output data representing said surface characteristics of a scanned portion of the surface of said object,
- d) combining means coupled to said processing means for combining sets of such output data derived from overlapping scans of said surface into a common set of output data by appropriate rotations and translations,
- e) inertial sensing means for detecting movement of said scanning device relative to said object and generating motion output signals representative of such movement, and
- f) correcting means responsive to said motion output signals from said inertial sensing means for correcting for movement of said scanning device relative to said object between successive scans.
A scanning arrangement for determining the shape of an object, the arrangement comprising a scanning device, said scanning device comprising:
- a) an optical projector for projecting a predetermined pattern onto a region of the surface of the object, and
- b) an optical detector for detecting the coordinates of said region and for generating output signals representative of such coordinates,
- said scanning device being freely movable relative to the object, the arrangement further including:
- c) processing means coupled to said detector for generating a set of output data representing said surface characteristics of a scanned portion of the surface of said object, and
- d) combining means coupled to said processing means for combining sets of such output data derived from overlapping scans of said surface into a common set of output data by appropriate rotations and translations, said combining means including further processing means for calculating said rotations and translations from subsets of respective sets of such output data which relate to a common area of said surface,
- e) inertial sensing means for detecting movement of said scanning device relative to said object, and
- f) correcting means responsive to output data from said further processing means and said inertial sensing means for correcting for movement of said scanning device relative to said object between successive scans.
A method of determining three-dimensional surface characteristics of an object by means of a scanning device, the method comprising:
- a) projecting from the scanning device a predetermined optical pattern onto a region of the surface of the object,
- b) optically detecting the surface characteristics of said region with an optical detector mounted on said scanning device,
- c) deriving a set of output data representing said surface characteristics of said region,
- d) repeatedly scanning said optical pattern over said object in overlapping fashion and deriving further sets of output data from overlapping scans, and
- e) correcting said sets of output data for movement of said scanning device relative to said object between successive scans by determining the movements needed to superimpose subsets of respective sets of said output data which relate to an area of said surface which is common to said sets, said scanning device being freely movable with respect to the object.
A method of determining three-dimensional surface characteristics of an object by means of a scanning device, the method comprising:
- a) projecting from the scanning device a predetermined optical pattern onto a region of the surface of the object,
- b) optically detecting the surface characteristics of said region with an optical detector mounted on said scanning device,
- c) deriving a set of output data representing said surface characteristics of said region,
- d) repeatedly scanning said optical pattern over said object in overlapping fashion and deriving further sets of output data from overlapping scans, and
- e) correcting said sets of output data for movement of said scanning device relative to said object between successive scans by sensing movement of said image acquisition device relative to said object with an inertial sensing means,
- said scanning device being freely movable with respect to the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.