1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of imaging, and more particularly to the field of pupil sampling for multi-view three-dimensional imaging.
2. Description of the Related Art
One approach to capturing three-dimensional depth information is the use of a pair of two-dimensional recording devices whose relative orientation is known. Much like human or animal optical systems, obtaining depth information from stereo optical systems is a triangulation technique that relies on the difference or disparity between the recorded positions of one or more target points on two imaging sensors. For each target feature, the magnitude of the disparity is directly related to that feature's distance from the imaging system. However, in machine vision systems this approach has shortcomings, such as the high cost of multiple camera/lens systems and the high computational cost of processing large target feature disparities between one sensor and another.
A closely related technology to stereo imaging is triplet imaging, where three separate images are used, rather than two. Triplet imaging is generally used to eliminate processing ambiguity and to provide imaging redundancy, thereby improving accuracy and robustness with minimal addition to computational cost. Most triplet imaging systems consist of three cameras placed equidistant from each other in the form of an equilateral triangle. Stereo systems usually take advantage of rectified camera position that results in disparity only in one direction. In this respect other triplet arrangements (such as an “L” configuration) may yield favorable results. Like stereo-based systems, objects appear displaced in each of the images acquired by these systems, with a displacement between cameras proportional to depth. However, unlike stereo systems, the object is displaced in both the horizontal and vertical directions among the three cameras. Once relative camera positions are known, image rectification can reduce the two-dimensional disparities into one-dimensional disparities. To resolve three-dimensional information, the disparity of object features appearing in the three images is determined through triangulation in much the same way as in stereo-based imaging. The three views define all points and edges (lines) within the imaged space. Using more than two sensors assists with working around the so-called “aperture effect” in imaging system, wherein local image disparity can only be determined perpendicular to the texture features providing the signal. This determination requires non-collinear sensors. Having more sensors also assists with occlusion of target surfaces, where one sensor is blocked, but the others can still provide sufficient information, the benefit of which is greater with non-collinear sensors.
In triangulation-based three-dimensional imaging systems (including stereo and triplet imaging systems), a need exists to accurately determine the displacement of object features between acquired images. The processing required to determine this displacement (and thereby allow distinct images to be resolved to a common coordinate system) is commonly referred to as image registration. Many types of image registration processing have been developed, including optical flow (based on the gradients of recorded image intensities), correlation (based on the spatial uniqueness of imaged object feature orientation and intensity), and graph cut (based on minimization of a user defined energy function relating image characteristics).
Thus, a number of mathematical and algorithmic techniques have been developed for resolving optical data into three-dimensional representations of imaged subject matter. However, there remains a need for improved optical trains to acquire data for three-dimensional imaging.
A three-dimensional imaging system uses a single primary optical lens along with three non-collinear apertures to obtain three offset optical channels each of which can be separately captured with an optical sensor.
In one aspect, a device disclosed herein includes an aperture element positioned within a primary optical facility having a center axis, the aperture element including three apertures positioned non-collinearly, each one of the apertures selectively transmitting a portion of an optical wave front of the primary optical facility, thereby providing three optical channels.
One of the three apertures may be a center aperture positioned on the center axis. The device may include a fourth aperture, the fourth aperture positioned on the center axis. The three apertures may be substantially equally spaced apart. The three apertures may form a right angle. Two of the three apertures may be one-hundred and eighty degrees apart with respect to the center axis of the primary optical facility. The aperture element may include one or more of a moving plate, an electronic aperture, a shutter, a shuttering aperture, an oscillating aperture, a flipping mirror, a rotating mirror, and a digital light processor. The aperture element may be adapted to rotate on the center axis. The device may include a refocusing facility having three refocusing elements located at conjugate positions to the three apertures within the primary optical facility. The refocusing facility may be adapted to rotate on the center axis. The aperture element may be adapted to rotate on the center axis. The refocusing facility may be adapted to rotate in an opposite direction from the aperture element. The device may include three optical sensors positioned to capture data from each of the three optical channels. Each one of the three optical sensors may include a collection of sensors to acquire RGB data. The device may include sampling facility that redirects the three optical channels to the three optical sensors. The sampling facility may include two mirrors separated by a space that passes a center one of the optical channels corresponding to a center one of the apertures. The sampling facility may include three mirrors. The sampling facility may include at least one prism. The at least one prism may include a prism having a hole that passes a center one of the optical channels corresponding to a center one of the apertures.
In another aspect, a device disclosed herein includes a refocusing facility positioned within a primary optical facility having a center axis, the refocusing facility including three refocusing elements positioned collinearly and substantially equally spaced, each one of the three refocusing elements refocusing a portion of an optical wave front of the primary optical facility, and a center one of the refocusing elements positioned on the center axis.
The refocusing facility may be adapted to rotate on the center axis. The refocusing elements may include at least one mirror. The refocusing elements may include at least one lens. The refocusing elements may include at least one meso-optical element. The device may include three optical sensors positioned to capture data from each of the three optical channels. Each one of the three optical sensors may include a collection of sensors to acquire RGB data.
All documents identified herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The invention and the following detailed description of certain embodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the following figures.
It will be understood that the ray traces and lenses depicted in the following figures are for purposes of illustration only, and depict optical paths generally in the disclosed systems. The ray traces and lens shapes should not be understood to limit the scope of the invention in any sense including the magnitude, direction, or focus of light rays or bundles passing through various optical components, notwithstanding any variations in number, direction, shape, position or size thereof, except as expressly indicated in the following detailed description.
Referring to
The imaging system 100 may be designed for active wavefront sampling, which should be understood to encompass any technique used to sample a series or collection of optical data from an object or objects, such as the object 120 of
The imaging system 100 may include an aperture element 108, which may include any element or elements for selectively transmitting a portion of the optical signal transmitted through the primary optical facility 102. While depicted in a position between a field lens 102d and a relay lens 102f, it will be understood that the aperture element 108 may suitably be positioned in a variety of locations within or outside of the primary optical facility 102, such as in front of, inside or behind one of the lenses that serves as the primary optical facility 102. The aperture element 108 may include one or more apertures 112. In embodiments, the aperture element 108 may comprise any kind of aperture element, including a dynamic aperture, a moving plate, a moving aperture, an electronically controlled aperture, an electronic aperture, a shutter, a shuttering aperture, a variable aperture, an oscillating aperture, a controllable aperture, a rotating aperture, a flipping mirror, a rotating mirror, a digital light processor (DLP), or other similar component. The apertures 112 may be located in various positions, such as collinear/on-axis with the primary optical path of the imaging system, or in a paraxial location/off-axis. In embodiments the apertures 112 of the aperture element 108 may include multiple apertures 108 disposed in various configurations, such as a line of three apertures 112, an equilateral triangle of apertures 112, a pair of apertures 112, apertures 112 disposed in an “L” configuration, or the like. In embodiments, one of the apertures 112 may be located on a central axis of the imaging system 100. In one embodiment, a rotating aperture element 108 may rotate about a central axis of the imaging system 100, with three co-linear apertures 112 disposed therein, one of which is located on the central axis of the imaging system 100. It will be understood that any rotating element described herein may be adapted to rotate using any electromechanical or other means known in the art and suitable for use with the optical systems described herein. The other two apertures 112 of the aperture element 108 may be located in a line with the centrally located aperture 112, with the two side apertures each being spaced an equal distance from the center aperture 112. In other embodiments the apertures 112 may be arranged in various other configurations, such as triangles, “L” shapes, or the like. The three apertures 112 on the rotating aperture element 108 allow sampling of three distinct portions of the ray bundles passing through the primary optical facility 102. The aperture element 108 may allow active subsampling of a portion of the wavefront from the primary optical facility 102, such as a primary lens of an imaging system 100. One or more of the apertures 112 of the aperture element 108 may be located at a fixed position, either on the central axis of the imaging system 100 or at another position that is fixed or invariant relative to the imaging system 100. In embodiments the use of holographic optical elements may increase the offset of the side apertures, which may advantageously increase depth resolution or sensitivity of the imaging system 100.
One or more of the apertures 112 may serve as a fixed reference image for imaging processing. Thus, in one aspect, there is disclosed herein a three-dimensional imaging system that employs a multi-aperture element 108 in the primary optical path, having at least one invariant aperture location that establishes a reference image. The system may include a moving or active multi-aperture element 108. The system may include a splitting facility that supports three or more optical channels. The non-moving aperture may be located at a paraxial location or may be located on the center axis.
In another aspect, there is disclosed herein a three-dimensional imaging system having a three-aperture element 108 wherein the apertures 112 are collinear, i.e., linearly disposed with respect to one another. The three-aperture element 108 may be a moving component in which one or more of the apertures 112 move within the optical path. In alternative embodiments the aperture element 108 may include apertures disposed in a triangular (e.g., equilateral triangle) configuration or may include a pair of apertures disposed in a line, apertures disposed in an “L” shape (e.g., a right triangle), or the like.
The imaging system 100 may include one or more refocusing facilities 110, which should be understood to include any facilities for refocusing ray bundles, or an image or portion of an image, altering focus, adjusting focus or the like. Embodiments may include refocusing lenses, relay lenses, mirror systems or other optical facilities capable of relaying, coding, or refocusing light, including, as appropriate for a particular context, any of the optical facilities described in connection with the primary optical facility 102 above. In some embodiments, the refocusing facility 110 may include one or more meso-optical elements to expand depth of field for an optical path, such as glass cones or Wavefront Coding™ devices commercially available from CDM Optics, Inc. Meso-optical elements suitable for using with the systems disclosed herein are described, for example, in Meso-Optics Foundations and Applications by L. M. Soroko (November 1996), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. While these elements can expand the in-focus range for the associated optical path(s) and may permit capture of images at a distance that is different from the in-focus plane of the primary optical facility, it will be appreciated that the corresponding image obtained by a sensor may be encoded in a manner that requires a decoding algorithm or process to recover a sharp image from a ray bundle. Suitable decoding algorithms are known, and may be deployed in any image processing system(s) associated with a camera embodying the primary optical facility.
A refocusing facility 110 may support one or more refocusing elements 104 that consist of a plurality of refocusing lenses. The refocusing facility 110 and the aperture element 108 may be located at conjugate positions in the optical system 100 and in certain embodiments may be considered to be at substantially the same position within the system 100. For example, and not by way of limitation, the aperture element 108 and the refocusing facility 110 may be coplanar, such as by having each aperture surround a refocusing lens at a shared pupil of the optical facility. The refocusing facility 110 and aperture element 108 may rotate, so that they focus an image on one or more sensors when in the appropriate position. The refocusing facility 110 may rotate in the same direction as the rotating aperture element 108, in the opposite direction, at the same speed, and/or at a different speed. In embodiments, the rotation of the elements 110, 108 is controlled by a processor (not shown).
The imaging system 100 may include a sampling facility 118. The sampling facility 118 may include any type of facility that samples or redirecting a portion of the optical signal passing through the imaging system 100, such as a splitting facility, pupil splitter, pupil splitting facility, prism, splitter, mirror, pupil sampling facility, plurality of mirrors, partial mirror, filter, mirror with transparent element, a pair of mirrors with a space between them, or other such facility. In addition to sampling at the exit pupil (i.e., located outside the primary optical facility 102), it is possible to sample at an internal pupil of the primary optical facility 102. Referring still to
It should be understood that various other arrangements may be provided for directing different ray bundles to different sensors 114. For example, a single mirror may be provided with a transmissive central element, e.g., a hole, to allow a portion of light to pass through to the rear sensor 114b. More generally, a variety of optical techniques including filters, splitters, mirrors, refractive and/or reflective elements, and the like, as well as various combinations of mechanical, electro-mechanical, and/or electrical shuttering may be usefully employed in the systems described herein.
The sensors 114 may include any sensors suitable for sensing a condition of optical energy, e.g., visible light, infrared energy, X-rays, ultraviolet light or other energy from any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that might be transmitted through the primary optical facility 102. Sensors should be understood to include sensors capable of measuring the intensity of light, sensors for sensing a color of light, collections of sensors, e.g., RGB sensors, and the like. Sensors may include collections of sensors, such as one-, two-, or three-sensor collections, or larger collections of sensors, which may be arranged to receive different ray bundles or the same ray bundle. The imaging system 100 may direct different sampled ray bundles to different parts of the same sensor, thus forming a number of virtual sensors from a single sensor or pixel array. In one embodiment, three sensors 114a, 114b and 114c may be positioned as two side channels and one rear channel to receive different ray bundles from the primary optical facility 102, as selectively delivered through, e.g., the aperture element 108.
The imaging system 100 may include one or more image processing facilities (not shown), which should be understood to include any hardware, software, or other processing systems for processing image data. The image processing facility may include one or more individual sensors, as described herein, as well as a camera (still, motion picture, digital, video, or other camera), a computer, a machine vision system, an optical system, a reader, an object tracking device, a scope, or the like. An image processing facility may include one or more additional components, such as a processor, microprocessor, application specific integrated circuit, circuit, microchip, microcontroller, controller, hardware element, software, firmware, or other component for processing data, including image data. Image processing facilities should be understood to include and to enable various techniques for processing images, including techniques described herein and in the documents incorporated by reference herein for active wavefront sampling of optical images, techniques based on correlation of image data from different images, or other image processing techniques, e.g., decoding wavefront coded images, known to those of skill in the art. In one embodiment, data from the sensors 114a, 114b and 114c of
The imaging system may include one or more feedback facilities, which may encompass any components of an image processing facility for providing feedback to controllable elements associated with the image processing facility. In embodiments, a feedback facility may provide feedback to control, for example, the refocusing facility 110 (e.g., to control the rotation of a rotating refocusing facility 110), the aperture element 108 (e.g., to control rotation of a rotating aperture, such as in conjunction with a rotating refocusing facility 110), the location of the object 120 relative to the primary optical facility, the operation of electronic optical components, or any other controllable aspect of the imaging system 100.
The imaging system may include one or more relay optical facilities, such as the relay lens 102f of
The imaging system may include an electronic optical facility, which encompasses any electronic component that accomplishes one or more functions performed by any of the optical components or facilities described herein, such as transmitting, focusing, reflecting, diffracting, refracting or relaying light. Embodiments may include spinning or flipping mirrors, liquid crystal elements, digital light processors, or the like.
In one aspect, the disclosed system includes a three-dimensional imaging system having a single primary optical facility 102. The system may employ pupil splitting or pupil sampling in combination with multiple sensors, as shown and described with reference to
In general, it will be appreciated that numerous variations are possible to the system 100 depicted in
It should also be understood that methods and systems are provided herein for three-dimensional imaging with a single primary optical facility 102, a multi-aperture element 108, and a single sensor. Embodiments include methods and systems for channeling rays through different apertures to different sections of the same sensor, e.g., particular pixels of the sensor. Embodiments include providing filters on the different apertures and using a single sensor to detect different wavelengths from the differently filtered apertures.
A three-dimensional imaging system as described herein may include a facility for separately handling distinct bundles of light rays from a single primary optical facility 102, such as a primary optical lens or set of lenses. The facility may include a refocusing facility 110, a moving aperture 108, a splitting facility 118, a combination of the foregoing, or an alternative optical arrangement that similarly handles distinct bundles or portions of image data.
The moving (e.g., rotating) aperture element 108 in the primary optical path may have an off-axis aperture or an on-axis aperture with a non-standard aperture shape, such as a slit. The aperture element 108 may also, or instead, include multiple moving or rotating plates. In addition, the apertures 112 in each of the one or more moving components may have various shapes. For example, to rotating disks, each having an elongated slit passing through or near its center, may be jointly controlled to provide an aperture at an arbitrary, programmable location within the optical path.
In certain preferred embodiments, provided herein are methods and systems for three-dimensional imaging using a rotating, multi-aperture plate 108 in the primary optical path, with feedback control of the rotating plate 108 through a feedback facility 1504.
Provided herein are methods and systems for three-dimensional imaging using a moving (e.g., rotating), multi-aperture element 108 at a pupil of the primary optical path. In embodiments the moving aperture component may be disposed either behind, in front of, or within a primary optical facility 102, such as a primary lens. Embodiments may include relay lenses 1402. Other embodiments may include intermediate optical facilities, or refocusing lenses 110, in front of the primary optical facility.
It should be understood that certain preferred embodiments may include one or more masking elements (e.g., a rotating shutter) for masking a portion of the primary bundle of light rays in the optical path of an imaging system.
In embodiments, the methods and systems described herein can be used for other purposes, such as for correcting aberrations. Thus, methods and systems include a three (or more) sensor system for correcting aberrations in image data.
It may noted that in various embodiments described herein, methods and systems are provided for three-dimensional imaging in which separate ray bundles are sampled, but the sampled portions of a primary ray bundle share at least one optical element after the sampling. It should also be noted that in certain embodiments herein are methods and systems are provided for three-dimensional imaging with pupil sampling at one pupil and relevant pupil splitting at another pupil of the imaging system.
It may be noted that provided herein are methods and systems that use three image sensors that record three independent perspectives through a single lens, using pupil sampling or pupil splitting. In embodiments, three sensors and a single lens are used. Unlike a typical triplet imaging system, which has three sensors located in a triangular pattern (but may have various other patterns) about a center position, in certain preferred embodiments the methods and systems disclosed herein may locate the third sensor between the two other sensors. This allows the third sensor to record object feature positions that are ideally an average of the positions recorded by the sensors to the left and to the right. This third sensor records an object position to which the other object images can be referenced. It provides a reference independent of object depth. This greatly simplifies registration of image data taken in time with a moving object and/or camera.
In embodiments, images from the three sensors are processed using a unique image registration technique that takes advantage of the third imaging sensor's location. Because the displacement of object features imaged by the third sensor are ideally an average of feature positions recorded by the left and right sensors, image registration between the third (center) sensor and the left sensor indicates a feature displacement equal in distance but opposite in direction to that of the imaged feature displacement between the center sensor and the right sensor. By changing the sign of the displacement direction of the registration between two sensors, a more accurate measure of image disparity can be found by combining the registration among the data from the different sensors. Additionally, there is the capability to use spatio-temporal processing methods, which may be more accurate.
Thus, various embodiments disclosed herein include methods and systems for combined pupil sampling by splitting the pupil of the primary optical system into one on-axis and multiple off-axis apertures for instantaneous capture of multiple images in the same spectral band by a monocular camera for three-dimensional imaging of moving objects. Thus, embodiments involve pupil sampling by a single moving/non-moving aperture element such as to image stationary scenes. Multiple images instantaneously captured in the same spectral band at different aperture locations on different sensors are made possible by combining pupil sampling done by a moving aperture mask (e.g., three collinear apertures) with pupil splitting by a set of stationary mirrors or prisms. Under this condition, after pupil sampling the individual rays share the same optical elements. This allows the implementation of a freely moving sampling aperture 112 and associated elements) with a stationary splitting facility (e.g., mirrors, prism, or the like). One aperture at the center and one or more at an off-axis location are used for capturing three-dimensional images of moving objects. Rays passing through the different apertures share the optics before and after pupil sampling and are have different optical paths before sampling.
Thus, the various methods and systems disclosed herein enable using a moving aperture with pupil splitting. In various embodiments the optical path of a single lens can be split into three regions and sent to separate sensors. A moving aperture plate with three aperture openings can be used to control the parts of the lens being used for imaging. By rotating the mask, the perspective seen by each of the sensors changes. The advantage of this arrangement, in addition to the advantages of using an offset rotating aperture, is that images from the three sensors can be used to acquire three-dimensional information. Thus, multiple images taken in time are not required to resolve the three-dimensional shape of an object. This greatly simplifies three-dimensional processing when wavefront imaging is used to image a moving object.
In other embodiments, methods and systems disclosed herein also include methods and systems to support off-axis optical wavefront and defocus blur sampling referenced to an on-axis image. In embodiments, an imaging system may assist in capturing imaging data for images of three-dimensional surfaces by quantitatively measuring the defocus blur size of the images. In particular, by pupil sampling with one or more off-axis apertures (e.g., the off-axis apertures disclosed in connection with
Referring to
Referring to
In embodiments, images from the three sensors are processed using a unique correlation technique that takes advantage of the third imaging sensor's location. Because the displacement of object features imaged by the third sensor are an average of feature positions recorded by the left and right sensors, image registration between the third (center) sensor and the left sensor indicates a feature displacement equal in distance but opposite in direction to that of the imaged feature displacement between the center sensor and the right sensor. By changing the sign of the displacement direction of the registration between two sensors, a more accurate measure of image disparity can be found by combining the registration between the center sensor and either the left or right sensor and the opposite sensor (right or left sensor).
In embodiments, the methods and systems disclosed herein may combine multi-view imaging with estimating the amount of defocus (blur) at the image plane. To avoid the contaminating effect of optical aberrations in capturing depth-related image motion, the system may be designed such that at a nominal working distance the object is placed in between the in-focus/reference plane of the primary optical system 102. This may result in a blurring or low pass filtering effect on the images captured through the on-axis and off-axis apertures. In order to compensate for this, and to increase optical resolution at the nominal working distance a set of refocusing lenslets may be used on the apertures to move the ray bundles back to focus without altering the path of the chief ray. Additionally, these lenses can also compensate or correct for some aperture-location-specific optical artifacts, to improve the resolving power of the optics (e.g. Modulation Transfer Function) for every aperture. However, even if the images are now in-focus at the nominal distance, narrow depth-of-field is still a problem. This can be addressed by applying other special optical elements on the apertures, such as a meso-optical element (a diffractive optical element that increases depth-of-field), or a wavefront coding element. Using these requires a special preprocessing step on the images to decode the depth or focus related data, and to construct an image that has larger depth-of-field than if it were acquired without these elements.
While the invention has been described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments may be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art and are encompassed herein.
This application claims the benefit of pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/530,428 filed on Sep. 8, 2006 which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/773,132 filed on Feb. 13, 2006. This application is also related to pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/530,413 filed on Sep. 8, 2006 and pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/530,420 filed on Sep. 8, 2006. Each of the above applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60773132 | Feb 2006 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11530428 | Sep 2006 | US |
Child | 12117116 | US |