Apparatus and method of measuring human extremities using peripheral illumination techniques

Apparatus for measuring a human extremity, comprising:

• a housing including a transparent plate;
• a plurality of optical illuminators, arranged around a periphery of the transparent plate, for generating and projecting light against substantially an entire periphery of a human extremity placed on a surface of the transparent plate;
• a digital camera, disposed within the housing and arranged to
• receive light reflected through the transparent plate from substantially an entire periphery of a human extremity placed on the surface of the transparent plate,
• capture the reflected light, and
• store a dipital representation of the reflected light.

A system for capturing information about the shape of an object, comprising:

• a housing including a transparent plate;
• an optical illuminator, arranged around the periphery of the transparent plate, for generating and projecting light against substantially an entire periphery of an object resting on a surface of the transparent plate;
• a camera within the housing disposed to
• receive light reflected through the transparent plate from substantially an entire periphery of an object resting on the surface of the transparent plate,
• capture the reflected light, and
• generate a digital representation of the captured reflected light;
• a frame grabber, coupled to the camera, for receiving and storing into a memory the digital representation of the captured digital representation generated by the camera;
• an illuminator control circuit, coupled to the optical illuminator, for switching the optical illuminator on and off;
• and
• a computer coupled to the frame grabber and programed to store, from the frame grabber, both an illuminated image of the object produced from a digital representation of reflected light that is captured when the optical illuminator is switched on and a non-illuminated image of the object produced from a digital representation of reflected light that is captured when the optical illuminator is switched off.

A method of capturing an image of a human extremity, comprising the steps of:

• (1) placing the human extremity on a transparent plate;
• (2) projecting light onto substantially the entire periphery of the human extremity while the human extremity is placed on the surface of the transparent plate;
• and
• (3) capturing in a camera an image of the light reflected by the periphery of the human extremity through the transparent plate and storing the captured image into a digital memory.

A method for capturing an image of a human extremity, comprising the steps of:

• (1) placing the human extremity on a transparent plate;
• (2) projecting light onto the periphery of the human extremity, but not onto portions of the human extremity that are in contact with the transparent plate;
• and
• (3) capturing in a camera an image of the light reflected by the human extremity through the transparent plate, and storing the captured image.

A method for capturing an image of a human extremity, comprising the steps of:

• (1) placing the human extremity on a transparent plate;
• (2) projecting light for a finte period onto the periphery of the human extremity while placed on the surface of the transparent plate by activating and then deactivating optical illuminators;
• and
• (3) capturing in a camera both the illluminated image of the human extremity as seen through the transparent plate when the optical illuminators are activated and the non-illuminated image of the human extremity as seen through the transparent plate when the optical illuminators are deactivated.