Method of monitoring a surface feature and apparatus therefor
AssigneeApplied Research Associates NZ Ltd.
InventorsWilliam Richard Fright, Mark Arthur Nixon, Bruce Clinton McCallum, James Telford George Preddey
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Abstract
Dimensions of a surface feature are determined by capturing an image of the surface feature and determining a scale associated with the image. Structured light may be projected onto the surface, such that the position of structured light in the captured image allows determination of scale. A non-planar surface may be unwrapped. The surface may alternatively be projected into a plane to correct for the scene being tilted with respect to the camera axis. A border of the surface feature may be input manually by a user. An apparatus and system for implementing the method are also disclosed.
Claims10
A method of producing a planar form of a non-planar skin surface including a surface feature comprising:
- a. projecting structured light onto the skin surface, the structured light including a plurality of fan-beams projected such that at least some of the fan-beams cross in front of the camera, each fan-beam projected so as to form a structured light stripe on the skin surface;
- b. capturing an image of the skin surface including the surface feature and structured light stripes on the skin surface;
- c. determining, by a computing device, three-dimensional coordinates of the structured light stripes within the image;
- and
- d. unwrapping, by the computer device, the image based on the three-dimensional coordinates of the structured light stripes to produce a planar form of the surface.
A method of producing a projection of a surface feature comprising:
- a. capturing an image of a surface feature;
- b. determining, by a computer device, from the image, coordinates of a plurality of points of the surface feature in three-dimensional space;
- c. determining, by the computer device, a plane that is a best-fit plane to at least a subset of the coordinates;
- and
- d. projecting the image onto the plane to produce a transformed image.
A handheld skin measurement or monitoring apparatus comprising:
- a. a camera configured to capture one or more images of a skin surface including a surface feature;
- and
- b. a plurality of structured light projectors each arranged in a fixed relationship with respect to each other and to the camera, each structured light projector being a laser fan-beam projector configured to project a laser fan beam so as to form a laser stripe on the skin surface, each structured light projector being configured to project the laser fan beam at an angle towards the camera's optical axis such that at least some of the fan beams cross in front of the camera and are at least partly captured in at least some of the one or more images by the camera.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.