Carnegie Mellon University

University of Nebraska

The Governing Council of the University of Toronto

Joseph Bartels

William L Whittaker

Srinivasa Narasimhan

Jian Jim Wang

Shane Farritor

Thomas James Frederick

Eric J Markvicka

Jack M Mondry

Aswin C Sankaranarayanan

Supreeth Achar

Jian Wang

Kiriakos Kutulakos

A method to dynamically and adaptively sample the depths of a scene using the principle of triangulation light curtains is described. The approach directly detects the presence or absence of obstacles (or scene points) at specified 3D lines in a scene by sampling the scene. The scene can be sampled sparsely, non-uniformly, or densely at specified regions. The depth sampling can be varied in real-time, enabling quick object discovery or detailed exploration of areas of interest. Once an object is discovered in the scene, adaptive light curtains comprising dense sampling of a region of the scene containing the object, can be used to better define the position, shape and size of the discovered object.

Agile depth sensing using triangulation light curtains

Embodiments described herein are generally directed to a device that monitors for the presence of objects passing through or impinging on a virtual shell near the device, referred to herein as a 'light curtain', which is created by rapidly rotating a line sensor and a line laser in synchrony. The boundaries of the light curtain are defined by a sweeping line defined by the intersection of the sensing and illumination planes.

Programmable light curtains

Energy-efficient epipolar imaging is applied to the ToF domain to significantly expand the versatility of ToF sensors. The described system exhibits 15+ m range outdoors in bright sunlight; robustness to global transport effects such as specular and diffuse inter-reflections; interference-free 3D imaging in the presence of many ToF sensors, even when they are all operating at the same optical wavelength and modulation frequency; and blur- and distortion-free 3D video in the presence of severe camera shake. The described embodiments are broadly applicable in consumer and robotics domains.

Method for epipolar time of flight imaging

The embodiments disclosed herein relate to various medical device components, including components that can be incorporated into robotic and/or in vivo medical devices. Certain embodiments include various medical devices for in vivo medical procedures.

Single site robotic device and related systems and methods

Growing community of inventors

Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Joseph Bartels