Surface construction using combined photographic and structured light information

A method of constructing a topographic representation of at least a portion of an object;

• the method comprising:
• obtaining multiple photographic images of the object that correspond to multiple views of the object relative to at least one camera wherein the object includes a flexible surface, a non-solid surface or combinations thereof;
• constructing a topographic representation of at least a portion of the object by processing the multiple photographic images using a back-projection algorithm;
• obtaining a structured light image that includes topographic information of the object;
• assessing quality in the structured light image to separate quality portions of the structured light image from other portions not suitable for further processing according to an image quality threshold;
• processing only the separated quality portions of the structured light image further to produce a quality thresholded structured light image;
• and
• constructing the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of the structured light topographic information and topographic information from the photographic topographic representation, wherein said constructing includes replacing data from the photographic information with quality thresholded structured light information data.

An imaging system for creating a topographic representation of at least a portion of an object;

• the system comprising:
• at least one camera configured to capture a photographic image of the object wherein the object includes a flexible surface, a non-solid surface or combinations thereof;
• a structured light source adapted to cast structured light onto the object and generate structured light information;
• and
• a processor that uses instructions stored in memory to construct the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of topographic information from a structured light image captured by the at least one camera when structured light is cast onto the object and topographic information from a photographic image captured by the at least one camera, wherein said processor is adapted to assess quality in the structured light image to separate quality portions of the structured light image from other portions not suitable for further processing according to an image quality threshold, to process only the separated quality portions of the structured light image further to produce a quality thresholded structured light image, and to replace data from the photographic information with quality thresholded structured light information data.

A non-transitory computer readable medium including processor executable instructions for creating a topographic representation for at least a portion of an object, the instructions comprising:

• instructions for obtaining at least one photographic image of the object that includes photographic information wherein the object includes a flexible surface, a non-solid surface or combinations thereof;
• instructions for obtaining a structured light image of the object that includes structured light information;
• instructions for assessing quality in the structured light image to separate quality portions of the structured light image from other portions not suitable for further processing according to an image quality threshold;
• instructions for processing only the separated quality portions of the structured light image further to produce a quality thresholded structured light image;
• and
• instructions for constructing the topographic representation of at least the portion of the object using a combination of topographic information from the structured light image and topographic information from the photographic image, wherein said constructing includes replacing data from the photographic information with quality thresholded structured light information data.