The Numerical Stereo Camera

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Abstract
We describe a "stereo camera" which rapidly acquires the (x,y,z) locations of a large number of sample points on a surface. The device works on the same triangulation principle as an ordinary stereo camera, but involves an active camera (coded-laser-beam-array projector), a passive camera (TV), and the software for pattern synchronization and analysis. The system involves (1) a single laser beam; (2) interference optics to transform the single beam into an array of laser beams; (3) a programmable electro-optic shutter which can block or transmit various subsets of the laser beams in the array; (4) a TV camera to view the environmental surfaces illuminated by the laser beam array; and (5) a processor which controls the shutter, synchronizes the shutter with the TV camera, and decodes the contents of the TV images of the different coded patterns projected on the environment. The system is being developed for rapid biomedical surface mapping but can also be used in vision aid for the blind, robot vision, assembly-line inspection, data acquisition for 3-D pattern recognition, and the monitoring of large surfaces and volumes (dams, construction processes, security areas, etc.).

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