Three-dimensional measuring apparatus, three-dimensional measuring method, and three-dimensional measuring program

A three-dimensional measuring method for measuring a measurement object, the three-dimensional measuring method comprising:

• a pattern forming step of forming a pattern for light to be projected onto the measurement object, said pattern comprising a combination of N individual patterns having an intensity Ii (i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N), respectively said combination including a pattern employing either an optimal combination which provides a maximum difference in an intensity of the relative maximums between a target individual pattern and an individual pattern adjacent thereto, or a second optimal combination which provides a sufficiently large difference in an intensity of the relative maximums between a target individual pattern and an individual pattern adjacent thereto;
• a pattern light projecting step of projecting a pattern of light in the pattern formed in the pattern forming step onto the measurement object;
• an imaging step of capturing an image of the measurement object illuminated with the pattern of light;
• a projected pattern light detection step of detecting the projected pattern of light on the image;
• a direction angle computing step of comparing the projected pattern of light and an original pattern of light to compute a direction angle of the projected pattern of light;
• a dividing step of dividing the projected pattern of light at every cycle;
• a phase value computing step of computing a phase value at a measuring point from the divided projected pattern of light;
• a distance computing step of computing a depth distance of the measuring point from the computed phase value;
• and
• a three-dimensional information computing step of computing three-dimensional information on the measurement object using the computed depth distance of the measuring point.

A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions for a three-dimensional measuring apparatus, the instructions for causing the three-dimensional measuring apparatus to execute:

• a pattern forming step of forming a pattern for light to be projected onto a measurement object, said pattern comprising a combination of N individual patterns having an intensity Ii (i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N), respectively, said combination including a pattern employing either an optimal combination which provides a maximum difference in an intensity of the relative maximums between a target individual pattern and an individual pattern adjacent thereto, or a second optimal combination which provides a sufficiently large difference in an intensity of the relative maximums between a target individual pattern and an individual pattern adjacent thereto;
• a projected pattern light detection step of detecting a projected pattern of light formed by a pattern forming means on an image of the measurement object illuminated with a projected pattern of light in the pattern formed in the pattern forming step;
• a direction angle computing step of comparing the projected pattern of light and an original pattern of light to compute a direction angle of the projected pattern of light;
• a dividing step of dividing the projected pattern of light at every cycle;
• a phase value computing step of computing a phase value at a measuring point from the divided projected pattern of light;
• a distance computing step of computing a depth distance of the measuring point from the computed phase value;
• and
• a three-dimensional information computing step of computing three-dimensional information on the measurement object using the computed depth distance of the measuring point.