Inexpensive range camera operating at video speed

Area of Science:

• Optoelectronics
• Computer Vision
• 3D Sensing

Background:

• Real-time 3D surface data acquisition is crucial for various applications.
• Existing methods often face limitations in speed and processing.
• Active triangulation offers a viable approach for depth recovery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate an optoelectronic device for real-time acquisition and display of object surface range data.
• To achieve high-speed depth map generation using active triangulation.
• To encode depth information into standard video signals for practical use.

Main Methods:

• Utilized active triangulation with a galvanometer scanner to sweep a light sheet across the object.
• Employed a specialized optical sensor and hardware for high-speed signal processing.
• Generated 50 range maps per second, converting them into European standard video signals.

Main Results:

• The device acquires and displays object surface range data in real-time video.
• Depth information is encoded in gray levels or color within the video signal.
• Achieved an image resolution of 128 x 500 pixels with 1.5% depth accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The developed optoelectronic device successfully provides real-time 3D surface mapping.
• The system's high frame rate and depth encoding offer practical advantages for 3D visualization.
• The adaptable design allows for customization of measurement volume and dimensions.