Minolta Company, Ltd.

Eiichi Ide

Hiroshi Uchino

Koichi Kamon

Takashi Kondo

Toshio Norita

Fumiya Yagi

Makoto Miyazaki

Hideki Tanabe

Takuto Joko

Mutsuhiro Yamanaka

A measuring section for measuring a three-dimensional shape of an object by scanning the object, and a display section for displaying information about an area where the scanning has been already completed in accordance with the progress of the scanning are provided. Thus, an image for clarifying the area where the scanning has been already completed and an area where the scanning has not been completed yet is displayed, and the progressing status of the scanning can be grasped accurately by a user.

Three-dimensional shape measuring system

A system comprises a two-dimensional photographing device and a three-dimensional measuring device that is removably attached to the two-dimensional photographing device. The two-dimensional photographing device and the three-dimensional measuring device can communicate with each other. Information indicating an operating condition of one of the devices is transmitted to the other device, which receives the information and sets own operating condition in accordance with the received information for photographing or measuring.

Imaging system, two-dimensional photographing device and three-dimensional measuring device

An object is to provide a three-dimensional data input apparatus that enables data currently required by the user to be easily extracted from the stored past three-dimensional data, shooting position data or shooting direction data. When the user provides the three-dimensional measuring devicewith a measurement instruction, the portions operate through control by the central processing portionto obtain the three-dimensional data SS and the two-dimensional image data SN of the object Q. The group of the three-dimensional data SS, the two-dimensional image data SN, the position data SP and the attitude data SA that are in the one-to-one correspondence with one another as described above are stored in the storage portionevery time the three-dimensional data of the object Q is measured. In a case where a fixed point observation of the object is repetitively performed by use of the three-dimensional measuring deviceby extracting from the storage portionthree-dimensional data SSK and two-dimensional image data SNK obtained in the past and comparing them with the present three-dimensional data SSG and two-dimensional image data SNG, the change in the configuration of the object during that period can be found.

Three-dimensional data input apparatus

Provided is a digital camera in which the user can easily recognize that an image is out of focus by viewing a display image. At the time of live view display, image capturing is performed every predetermined time in an image capturing unit and images for live view display are successively recorded on an image memory An evaluation value computing unit in an overall control unit obtains an image stored in the image memory and calculates an evaluation value indicative of the focus state of the image. A display image control unit obtains the evaluation value, determines a focus state of the image, and controls a process to be performed by a display image processing unit in accordance with the result of determination. When the image is out of focus, an image quality degrading process is performed in the display image processing unit and an image of low image quality is displayed on a display

Digital camera

In a distance measuring apparatus having a projector that projects pulse light P outside and a light receiver that receives the pulse light being reflected in the outside and performs photoelectric conversion, and outputting measurement data DL responsive to a time Tf from the transmission point of time to the reception point of time of the pulse light, the following are provided: determining means for determining whether a received light waveform DP is correct or includes at least two incorrect waveforms based on an output signal SP of the light receiver ; and warning data outputting means for outputting warning data DE responsive to the result of the determination when the determining means determines that the received light waveform DP is incorrect.

Distance measuring apparatus

A method and apparatus for inputting three-dimensional data are provided, in which operation for obtaining incident angles is not required and accuracy of three-dimensional data can be improved. The method includes steps of irradiating a reference light beam from a first starting point A to an object by a first angle &thgr;A, irradiating a reference light beam from a second starting point B separated from the first starting point A to the object by a second angle &thgr;B, moving the first and the second starting points A, B in one direction so as to perform sub scanning of an imaginary plane VS, detecting time points TA, TB when the reference light beam reflected by the object Q passes each sampling section of the imaginary plane; and calculating the position of the object for each sampling section in accordance with positions of the first and second starting points A, B in each of the detected time points TA, TB and first and second angles &thgr;A, &thgr;B.

Method and apparatus for inputting three-dimensional data

An object is to provide a three-dimensional data input apparatus that enables data currently required by the user to be easily extracted from the stored past three-dimensional data, shooting position data or shooting direction data. When the user provides the three-dimensional measuring device with a measurement instruction, the portions operate through control by the central processing portion to obtain the three-dimensional data SS and the two-dimensional image data SN of the object Q. The group of the three-dimensional data SS, the two-dimensional image data SN, the position data SP and the attitude data SA that are in the one-to-one correspondence with one another as described above are stored in the storage portion every time the three-dimensional data of the object Q is measured. In a case where a fixed point observation of the object is repetitively performed by use of the three-dimensional measuring device by extracting from the storage portion three-dimensional data SSK and two-dimensional image data SNK obtained in the past and comparing them with the present three-dimensional data SSG and two-dimensional image data SNG, the change in the configuration of the object during that period can be found.

A three-dimensional data input apparatus has a first and a second modes. In the first mode, images of an object are taken from two view points being apart from each other, the position of the object is calculated with high accuracy in accordance with the distance between the view points and the directions from each view point to the irradiated part of the object by the method of triangulation, and the calculated data or the data for calculation is output. In the second mode, the position of a part of the object is calculated in accordance with the irradiation angle and the reception angle in the same way as the conventional method of triangulation. In the first mode that does not use the irradiation angle information for calculating the position.

An apparatus and method for detecting a three-dimensional image. The apparatus includes a projector which projects a reference light on an object; an image sensor which senses an image of the object; and a controller for controlling the projector and the image sensor, wherein the image sensor includes an aperture that restricts the passage of entering light; and an aperture controller for setting an aperture value for the aperture when receiving a two-dimensional image input, and setting an aperture value for the aperture when receiving a three-dimensional image input. The aperture value is set based on the intensity of received reference light. A processing unit determines the position of the object based on a relationship between an illumination direction of the reference light at the determined time center Npeak and an entrance direction of the reference light relative to the target pixel. A flicker detector detects a change frequency in light received by the image sensor, and the controller controls the image sensor to sense frames of an image at a frequency which is a multiple of the detected change frequency.

Three-dimensional input device

A three-dimensional measurement device employs a slit ray projection technique to optically determine a three-dimensional image. The device offers a choice in operating modes between high-speed measurement, high-resolution measurement and large dynamic range in the depth direction, to accommodate various situations. The different modes of operation are achieved by selectively modifying one or more of the scanning speed of a projected reference beam, the readout speed of a photosensor, the line width or line spacing of the photosensor, and the number of lines per image frame.

Three-dimensional measurement apparatus

In a three dimensional measurement system, a three dimensional pickup apparatus picks up an object repeatedly to generate image information including a shape of the object, and an information processor receives image frame signals and digital signals from the pickup apparatus to process the image information. Image information is sent as image frame signals through a first output terminal, and digital signals are sent through a second output terminal in correspondence to output of the image information through the first output terminal. In the information processor, an input controller receives the digital signals from the first output terminal and receives the image frame signals suitable for transmission of moving images in correspondence to the received digital signals from the second output terminal. For example, the pickup conditions for a next period are set based on the pickup information obtained in a current period. For example, a distance sensor is provided further to adjust the pickup conditions in various ways in continuous pickup mode.

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Itami, Japan

Eiichi Ide