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:
Sep. 24, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 04, 2001
Fausto Bernardini, New York, NY (US);
Henning Biermann, New York, NY (US);
Holly E. Rushmeier, Mount Kisco, NY (US);
Silvio Savarese, Pasadena, CA (US);
Gabriel Taubin, Hartsdale, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for obtaining the shape of an object by observing silhouettes of the object. At least one point light source is placed in front of the object, thereby casting a shadow of the object on a translucent panel that is placed behind the object. A camera, or other imaging device, captures an image of the shadow from behind the translucent panel. The object's full silhouette is obtained from the image of the shadow as the region of the shadow is substantially darker than the region outside of the shadow. The full silhouette thus obtained may be processed by any suitable shape from silhouette algorithm, and thus objects are not limited in topological type. A color image of the object can optionally be obtained simultaneously with the shadow image using a camera placed on the same side of the object as the light source. Multiple silhouettes can be captured for one object position, reducing the number of rotations needed on a turntable system, and reducing the post-processing needed to register geometries obtained from multiple different positions.