The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 18, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 08, 1995
Edward D Huber, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Rick A Williams, Orinda, CA (US);
Dean M Shough, Newark, CA (US);
Osuk Y Kwon, Seoul, KR;
Rebecca L Welling, La Honda, CA (US);
Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for measuring the contours (30) of a three-dimensional object (4); and a method for calibrating an optical system (2, 8). The object (4) is placed into the field of view of the optical system (2, 8). The optical system (2, 8) is activated to obtain a set of data giving a phase (x.sub.t) at each of a plurality of pixels corresponding to the object (4). The phases (x.sub.t) are unwrapped, e.g., by a method of ordered phase unwrapping. The unwrapped phases are converted into a set of three-dimensional coordinates (x.sub.s, y.sub.s, z.sub.s) of the object (4) for each of the pixels. These coordinates (x.sub.s, y.sub.s, z.sub.s) can be portrayed on a display of a computer (10). The method for calibrating the optical system (2, 8) shares several common steps with the above method. In addition, coordinates of a test calibration fixture (38, 46) are first mechanically measured. Following optical measurement of the calibration fixture (38, 46), an optimization procedure is used to minimize the difference between the mechanically measured coordinates (x.sub.m, y.sub.m, z.sub.m) and the coordinates (x.sub.s, y.sub.s, z.sub.s) calculated from the optical measurements. The optimization procedure in the calibration method fixes the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the optical system (2, 8). A blending method can be used to increase the dynamic range of the measured intensity. Phase shifting is performed by either a method of temporal phase shifting or a method of spatial phase shifting.