Northern Digital Inc.

Athanasios Tommy Balkos

Larry Chen

Shaulaine White

Derek Peter Zwambag

David Charles Willms

Drexel Lee Hallaway

Kirsten Galea

David Willms

A retro-reflective marker comprising a bare retro-reflective layer; a protective layer with a near-infrared (NIR) wavelength specific anti-reflective coating; and a border with an NIR absorbent coating.

Retro-reflective disc target having exposed retro-reflective beads

An apparatus comprising a retro-reflective marker and a device configured to receive the retro-reflective marker in a socket located on the top surface of the device. The retro-reflective marker comprises a retro-reflective layer having a first retro-reflectance capability. The retro-reflective layer comprises a textured surface, a portion of the textured surface having a surface topology such that surface normal vectors positioned across the portion extend from the portion of the textured surface in different directions, and a plurality of retro-reflective micro elements distributed across the textured surface. The retro-reflective marker further comprises a border defining a retro-reflective area of the retro-reflective layer, where a portion of the border provides a second retro-reflectance capability lower than the first retro-reflectance capability.

Textured retro-reflective marker

An apparatus including a retro-reflective section. The retro-reflective section includes an outer surface, an inner surface, and a plurality of retro-reflective microelement. One or more of the plurality of retro-reflective microelements include a plurality of reflective surfaces. Each of the plurality of retro-reflective microelements extends from the inner surface at a location different from locations of the other retro-reflective microelements, and each of the plurality of retro-reflective microelements comprises a central axis extending along a direction that corresponds to a surface normal of the outer surface.

Retro-reflective marker with uniformly distributed microelements

A marker comprising: a retro-reflective layer having a first retro-reflectance capability and a border defining a retro-reflective area of the retro-reflective layer. The retro-reflective layer includes a textured surface, a portion of the textured surface having a surface topology such that surface normal vectors positioned across the portion extend from the portion of the textured surface in different directions. A plurality of retro-reflective micro elements are distributed across the textured surface. A portion of the border provides a second retro-reflectance capability lower than the first retro-reflectance capability.

Tracking system for tracking one or more reflective markers includes at least two optical sensors configured to obtain image data of an environment that includes at least one marker. The tracking system obtains the image data from the at least two optical sensors. The tracking system is configured for extracting, from the image data, optical signatures representing reflections of the optical signal from at least one marker, determining optical centroids of the optical signatures of the at least one marker, estimating an initial pose for at least one marker, determining offset error vectors from the optical centroids of the at least one marker based on the initial pose, determining corrected optical centroids based on the offset error vectors and the optical centroids, and determining a corrected three dimensional position of the marker in the environment based on the corrected optical centroids of the marker.

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Waterloo, Canada

Athanasios Tommy Balkos