Image acquisition with depth enhancement
AssigneeUniversity of Washington
InventorsEric J. Seibel, Quinn Y. J. Smithwick, Thomas A. Furness, III
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Abstract
A minimally invasive, medical, image acquisition system outputs a light beam or pulse which illuminates a precise spot size. A plurality of photon detector detect returning photons from the object, including the spot. Pixel resolution is determined by the area of the illumination spot (and thus the lens configuration), rather than an area sensed by the detector. Depth enhancement is determined by correlating images detected by the respective detectors, or alternatively by a range finding method based on phase difference, time of flight, frequency or interferometry.
Claims35
A method for generating an image of a target surface, comprising the steps of:
- outputting a beam of light along a scan path relative to an optical axis;
- focusing the beam onto a target surface being scanned, wherein at a given time the beam is focused to impinge on a spot of the target, the spot being an illuminated spot, the illuminated spot varying with time as the beam is scanned onto the target surface;
- detecting light returning from the target surface responsive to the output beam of light with a plurality of detectors, each one of the plurality of detectors having a respective location relative to the optical axis, wherein the returning light is detected concurrently at the plurality of detectors;
- acquiring a plurality of concurrent images with the plurality of detectors;
- wherein the plurality of concurrent images have a common apparent viewpoint based upon a common light beam being used to generate the returning light, the common light beam being said output beam of light;
- wherein each one image of the plurality of concurrent images has a differing apparent lighting direction, the apparent lighting direction for a given one image of the plurality of images being based upon the respective location of a corresponding one or more detectors of the plurality of detectors used to acquire said given one image;
- and
- processing the plurality of concurrent images to derive an output image of the target surface, including relative depth information based upon the differing apparent lighting direction from each one image of the plurality of concurrent images.
A system for acquiring an image of a target surface, comprising:
- a light source which emits light;
- an actuator which deflects the emitted light along a scan path relative to an optical axis;
- a plurality of photon detectors for detecting light returning from the target surface responsive to the emmitted light, each one of the plurality of photon detectors having a distinct location relative to the optical axis, wherein a plurality of concurrent images are acquired with the plurality of detectors, the plurality of concurrent images have a common apparent viewpoint based upon a common light beam being used to generate the returning light, the common light beam being said output beam of light, each one image of the plurality of concurrent images having a differing apparent lighting direction, the apparent lighting direction for a given one image of the plurality of images being based upon the respective location of a corresponding one or more detectors of the plurality of detectors used to acquire said given one image;
- and
- a processor which processing the plurality of concurrent images to derive an output image of the target surface, including depth information based upon the differing apparent lighting direction from each one image of the plurality of concurrent images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.