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US 9,883,169 B2Granted
Optical system, apparatus and method for operating an apparatus using helmholtz reciprocity
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsRoderick Koehle, Markus Kamm
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical system includes an illumination unit and an imaging unit configured to image a scene including at least one object into a first image and a second image by using Helmholtz reciprocity. The illumination unit is configured to emit light into at least one light emitting solid angle and the imaging unit is configured to receive light from a light receiving solid angle. The light receiving solid angle is at least as large as each of the light emitting solid angles.
Claims13
An apparatus comprising
- an optical system according with an illumination unit and an imaging unit configured to image a scene including at least one object into at least a first image and a second image by using Helmholtz reciprocity;
- and
- a processor configured to obtain disparity information concerning the first image and the second image on the basis of a comparison of intensity sum values along corresponding lines in the first image and the second image and configured to retrieve depth information concerning the object from the disparity information, wherein
- the processor is configured to obtain the disparity information by:
- integrating in the first image an intensity of the captured light along the corresponding lines, to obtain intensity sum profiles of the first image;
- integrating in the second image the intensity of the captured light along the corresponding lines, to obtain intensity sum profiles of the second image;
- selecting for each pair of corresponding lines of the first image and the second image the corresponding intensity sum profile of the first image and the corresponding intensity sum profile of the second image;
- determining from the selected intensity sum profile of the first image for each intensity sum value a first position on the integration path within the first image at which the intensity sum value is reached;
- determining from the selected intensity sum profile of the second image for each intensity sum value a second position on the integration path within the second image at which the intensity sum value is reached;
- and
- determining for each intensity sum value the disparity from the first position and the second position.
8 more elements
A method for operating an apparatus including an optical system, the method comprising:
- imaging a scene including at least one object into at least a first image and a second image by using Helmholtz reciprocity;
- obtaining disparity information concerning the first image and the second image on the basis of a comparison of intensity sum values along corresponding lines in the first image and the second image;
- and
- retrieving depth information concerning the object from the disparity information, wherein
- obtaining the disparity information comprises
- integrating in the first image an intensity along the corresponding lines to obtain intensity sum profiles of the first image;
- integrating in the second image the intensity along the corresponding lines to obtain intensity sum profiles of the second image
- selecting for each pair of corresponding lines of the first image and the second image the corresponding intensity sum profile of the first image and the corresponding intensity sum profile of the second image;
- determining from the selected intensity sum profile of the first image for each value of integrated intensity a first position on the integration path within the first image at which the value of integrated intensity is reached;
- determining from the selected intensity sum profile of the second image for each value of integrated intensity a second position on the integration path within the second image at which the value of integrated intensity is reached;
- and
- determining for each value of integrated intensity the disparity from the first position and the second position.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.