The present invention relates to methods and system for measuring three dimensional spatial coordinates and for external camera calibration necessary for that measurement. A simple pattern of light is projected onto a surface and used as a photogrammetric target. Images of the simple pattern are captured by two or more cameras, and processed by a computer provided with software using conventional algorithms to identify homologous points. Either, these points are used to calculate the external ca...

A three-dimensional inspection system is used to obtain three-dimensional information pertaining to an article having specular surfaces, such as a BGA device, by projecting a pattern of light onto the article at an oblique angle with respect to the article. The system includes patterned light projector having an optical axis disposed at an oblique angle with respect to the plane of the article being inspected and an image detector or camera disposed generally above the article being inspected to...

Apparatus and methods of measuring three-dimensional position information of a point on the surface of an object. The invention also relates to an apparatus for projecting fringes onto a surface of an object including two sources of radiation separated by a distance, each source having a spectral distribution, and being coherent with respect to the other of the sources, a control system moving each of the sources relative to the other of the sources, and a detector positioned to receive radiatio...

Laser-based methods and systems for real-time structured light depth extraction are disclosed. A laser light source (100) produces a collimated beam of laser light. A pattern generator (102) generates structured light patterns including a plurality of pixels. The beam of laser light emanating from the laser light source (100) interacts with the patterns to project the patterns onto the object of interest (118). The patterns are reflected from the object of interest (118) and detected using a hig...

A projector (20) projects a structured light pattern (46) along a first optical axis (44) onto a surface (80). A viewer (50) attached to the projector (20) receives a reflection of the structured light pattern (46) from the surface (80) along a second optical axis (54), and digitizes a two-dimensional snapshot. The optical axes (44, 54) are non-parallel, and they meet within a common field of view of the projector (20) and the viewer (50). A computer (61) interfaced to the viewer (50) receives t...

A high speed, phase shifting scanning profilometry system is disclosed. A high speed CMOS sensor having more than 3 rows of pixels, in one embodiment having 1024, each row of which being randomly accessible, is positioned above a workpiece movable below the camera. The workpiece is illuminated in a non-uniform manner by an illumination source configured to project a predetermined pattern or gradient of light. As the workpiece is moved under the sensor, selected rows of pixels register the non-un...

In a device for raster-stereographic measurement of body surfaces, preferably of irregularly shaped objects, in which a raster pattern having a plurality of raster lines is projected onto the surface according to the method of raster stereography by a raster projector and a line image which is distorted by the surface shape is recorded by means of a camera which forms a stereo base with the raster projector, the raster pattern having periodically recurring, particularly emphasized lines, where t...

A method of optically mapping a person's face includes the steps of illuminating the face through a grid structure to produce a grid representation on the face; viewing the illuminated face with a video camera; producing a video signal in response to the step of viewing; converting the video signal to digital form; storing a frame of the digitized video signal in a frame memory; defining the grid representation on the face, from the stored video signal; locating coordinates of the intersection p...

A three-dimensional triangulation-type sensor-illumination system adapted for connection to a machine vision computer. The illumination source in the preferred system comprises a unique cross hair light pattern which provides sufficient image data to the computer to enable the computer to make three-dimensional measurements of a wide variety of features, including edges, corners, holes, studs, designated portions of a surface and intersections of surfaces. The illumination source and sensor are ...

The invention relates to a sensor for measuring the surface of an object, having a contrasting unit (3) for projecting a pattern onto the surface of the object, and having a camera (4) for recording of the pattern projected onto the surface of the object, in which the contrasting unit (3) has an LED projector (5). To achieve high precision and great robustness, the camera (4) and the LED projector (5) are located in the longitudinal direction. In addition, respective deflecting mirrors (8, 11) a...