First and second lenses are spaced apart in a common plane and provide respective first and second recorded representations of radiant energy issuing from an object surface point or region. The first representation is displaced relative to the second in measure depending on such lens spacing to spatially locate the image location of the object surface point relative to the second lens. With lens focal length known and magnification now determinable, object surface point distance outwardly of the lens common plane may be computed. Since the ray from the image location to the second lens node is also spatially located, the object surface point spatial location is defined.

A system for automatically mapping the surface of a celestial body is presented. A satellite in a near polar sun-synchronous orbit about the body includes two or three linear sensing photo-detector arrays mounted transversely to the satellite heading. With two arrays, both are oriented at the same angle to the geometric vertical, with one aimed forward and the other aft along the apparent track of the satellite. With three arrays, the third array is oriented downward toward the geometric vertical. Two of the arrays are used to sense the body surface with the satellite velocity providing continuous imaging. With rugged terrain, one angled array and the vertical array sense linear strips of the body disposed parallel to the apparent path of the satellite. With relatively flat terrain the angled arrays are used. Data is acquired by sensing the same elemental areas of strips from a first position in space with a first array, and once the satellite has moved to a second position, with the second array. The two satellite positions and an incremental area on the ground define an equipolar plane. The two arrays produce two data flows which, when corrolated, result in data representative of elevational information for each incremental area of each strip. The system allows near real-time mapping since the imaged areas being compared are included in an equipolar plane, making data correlation for topographic information a matter of comparing the two one-dimensional records.

Disclosed herein is a binocular artificial vision system including left and right hand video cameras providing left and right video signals to a stereo correlator providing a correlated distance signal at the output thereof. The left and right hand video cameras have overlapping fields-of-view, the stereo correlator derives a quality of correlation signal as well as a range distance signal from the left and right video signals, and means are provided to vary the effective eyebase of the video cameras in response to the quality of correlation signal.

A system for use in conjunction with a stereomapper for determining conjugate points on stereoscopically generated images along a plurality of parallel lines during each mechanical translation of the images across the area being mapped. The system operates in the digital domain and incorporates control logic, either hardware or software, for modifying the data to correct the geometrical distortions, for selecting the data to be correlated in accordance with the parallax data computed from the preceding correlation, for correlating the selected data, and for generating parallax data. The conversion of the image data to digital form and its attendant storage capabilities permits the data generation to proceed independent of the generation of parallax data. The use of the special purpose minicomputers for data shaping, correlation, and the computation of parallax data permits the data generated by scanning the many parallel lines to be converted to parallax data without exceeding the computation capacity of existing electronics. Further, the scanning of a plurality of parallel lines during each translation of the images reduces the number of translations required to scan the desired area on each image and significantly increases the speed at which the area may be mapped.

This invention provides a method of extracting corresponding points from plural images with improved reliability and with a shortened process time. In the method of this invention, the extraction of the corresponding points in plural images is achieved by determining the right-side epipolar line, on which the corresponding points should be positioned, by calculation, and transferring candidate corresponding points, obtained on the right-side image by a conventional method for extracting the corresponding points, onto the points of shortest distance on thus determined right-side epipolar line.