157 results about "Active illumination" patented technology

A method and apparatus for mapping depth of an object (22) in a preferred arrangement uses a projected light pattern to provide a selected texture to the object (22) along the optical axis (24) of observation. An imaging system senses (32, 34) first and second images of the object (22) with the projected light pattern and compares the defocused of the projected pattern in the images to determine relative depth of elemental portions of the object (22).

A system for multimodal biometric identification has a first imaging system that detects one or more subjects in a first field of view, including a targeted subject having a first biometric characteristic and a second biometric characteristic; a second imaging system that captures a first image of the first biometric characteristic according to first photons, where the first biometric characteristic is positioned in a second field of view smaller than the first field of view, and the first image includes first data for biometric identification; a third imaging system that captures a second image of the second biometric characteristic according to second photons, where the second biometric characteristic is positioned in a third field of view which is smaller than the first and second fields of view, and the second image includes second data for biometric identification. At least one active illumination source emits the second photons.

A method and apparatus for facial image acquisition and / or recognition used for person identification. In infrared face image acquisition, near infrared (NIR) images of a face are captured by an imaging unit with the face illuminated by active NIR lights; an NIR optical filter is used in the imaging unit to minimize visible lights in environments while allowing NIR lights to pass through. NIR face images thus acquired provides good image quality for the purpose of face recognition. In face recognition, eyes are localized in NIR face image(s) quickly and accurately by detecting specular highlight reflection in each eye, whereby face is then localized. The invention effectively problems caused by environmental lights, and leads to accurate and fast face recognition under variable lighting conditions. Moreover, the methods use a non-intrusive and user-friendly way of active lighting for face image acquisition and recognition because the NIR lights are in the invisible spectrum.

An autostereoscopic multi-user display comprising a sweet-spot unit which is directionally controlled by a tracking and image control device (160), wherein an illumination matrix (120) is provided with separately activatable illuminating elements (11 . . . 56), in addition to an imaging device used to alternatingly image active illuminating elements, for making expanded sweet spots (SRI / SR2) visible to various eye positions (EL1 / ERI, EL2 / ER2) of viewers observing alternating images or a stereoscopic image sequence on a transmissive image matrix (140) with the aid of directed beams (B1R . . . B5L). According to the invention, the imaging device comprises an imaging matrix (110) provided with a plurality of lens elements (111 115) whose focal length is small in order to image the active illuminating elements in an enlarged manner onto the sweet spots (SRI / SR2), and a field lens (171), which follows the imaging matrix (110), in order to keep the distances of the activated illuminating elements between adjacent beams (B1, B2,B4, B5) as constant as possible and in order to assist selection of the directions (D1. . . D5) with the illumination matrix (120) for the beams.

Systems, apparatus and methods may be configured to implement actively-controlled light emission from a robotic vehicle. A light emitter(s) of the robotic vehicle may be configurable to indicate a direction of travel of the robotic vehicle and / or display information (e.g., a greeting, a notice, a message, a graphic, passenger / customer / client content, vehicle livery, customized livery) using one or more colors of emitted light (e.g., orange for a first direction and purple for a second direction), one or more sequences of emitted light (e.g., a moving image / graphic), or positions of light emitter(s) on the robotic vehicle (e.g., symmetrically positioned light emitters). The robotic vehicle may not have a front or a back (e.g., a trunk / a hood) and may be configured to travel bi-directionally, in a first direction or a second direction (e.g., opposite the first direction), with the direction of travel being indicated by one or more of the light emitters.

An illumination system and methods to control a light source are provided. An illumination system includes a light source, a two-dimensional non-Passive Infrared (non-PIR) imager, and a controller. The light source may provide at least two levels of illumination. The non-PIR imager images an area and to produce image data representative of images across at least part of a visible portion of an electromagnetic spectrum. The controller is communicatively coupled to receive the image data from the non-PIR imager and process the received image data to detect at least one object in the area of a defined type of object. The controller is also coupled to control operation of the light source based on, at least in part, detection of the ambient characteristic of the environment. Alternatively, one or more components of a system may be used to monitor traffic, with or without active illumination.

Environmental characteristics of habitable environments (e.g., hotel or motel rooms, spas, resorts, cruise boat cabins, offices, hospitals and / or homes, apartments or residences) are controlled to eliminate, reduce or ameliorate adverse or harmful aspects and introduce, increase or enhance beneficial aspects in order to improve a “wellness” or sense of “wellbeing” provided via the environments. Control of intensity and wavelength distribution of passive and active Illumination addresses various issues, symptoms or syndromes, for instance to maintain a circadian rhythm or cycle, adjust for “jet lag” or season affective disorder, etc. Air quality and attributes are controlled. Scent(s) may be dispersed. Noise is reduced and sounds (e.g., masking, music, natural) may be provided. Environmental and biometric feedback is provided. Experimentation and machine learning are used to improve health outcomes and wellness standards.

System and methods for non-intrusive real-time eye detection and tracking are disclosed. A subject's eyes can be detected by using active illumination analysis to generate a difference image of the subject. In the difference image, the bright pupil effect intensifies the appearance of the subject's pupils. A component analysis can be used to identify a set of pupil candidates from the difference image. An appearance-based analysis can be applied to the pupil candidates to identify the subject's eyes from background noise that can occur under various lighting conditions. After the subject's eyes are detected, a multi-stage tracking process is disclosed for detecting real-time eye movements. Further features are disclosed such as an image acquisition apparatus that reduces external illumination interferences.

A system for multimodal biometric identification has a first imaging system that detects one or more subjects in a first field of view, including a targeted subject having a first biometric characteristic and a second biometric characteristic; a second imaging system that captures a first image of the first biometric characteristic according to first photons, where the first biometric characteristic is positioned in a second field of view smaller than the first field of view, and the first image includes first data for biometric identification; a third imaging system that captures a second image of the second biometric characteristic according to second photons, where the second biometric characteristic is positioned in a third field of view which is smaller than the first and second fields of view, and the second image includes second data for biometric identification. At least one active illumination source emits the second photons.

A system for multimodal biometric identification has a first imaging system that detects one or more subjects in a first field of view, including a targeted subject having a first biometric characteristic and a second biometric characteristic; a second imaging system that captures a first image of the first biometric characteristic according to first photons, where the first biometric characteristic is positioned in a second field of view smaller than the first field of view, and the first image includes first data for biometric identification; a third imaging system that captures a second image of the second biometric characteristic according to second photons, where the second biometric characteristic is positioned in a third field of view which is smaller than the first and second fields of view, and the second image includes second data for biometric identification. At least one active illumination source emits the second photons.

An illuminated display that is susceptible to interruption or termination of active lighting capability and provides passive lighting capability in such circumstances. The illuminated display features an active illumination source providing active lighting capability and a display member (i) arranged in light-receiving relationship to the active illumination source and (ii) containing photoluminescent pigment incorporated therein in sufficient amount and distribution to illuminate the display during the interruption or termination of active lighting capability, to provide passive lighting capability. The illuminated display may further include a fluorescent pigment arranged in photoluminescent light-receiving relationship to the display member containing the photoluminescent pigment, whereby the fluorescent pigment down-converts photoluminescent light from the display member during the interruption or termination of active lighting capability.

In an actively illuminated imaging system, illumination of a segmented scene is synchronized with an image sensing period. A scene is segmented into a plurality of scene portions utilizing a segmented lens. In an aspect, a first scene portion is illuminated when an imager is actively collecting photogenerated charge from the first scene portion, and a second scene portion is illuminated when an imager is actively collecting photogenerated charge from the second scene portion. The sensitivity of an image sensor is maximized, while simultaneously minimizing the amount of light that must be supplied to illuminate a scene. An irradiance pattern is varied allowing a more uniform distribution of light. Bands of varying wavelength, polarization, and light intensity may be variously applied to illuminate individual scene segments, as needed to enhance an identification of an object in the scene. The present invention is particularly useful with high frame rate imaging systems.

The invention discloses a projector and camera simultaneous fast calibration method used for an active projection illumination three dimensional appearance measuring system. The method utilizes a reasonable color design and utilizes the projector for projecting an image with multi-color characteristic points onto a two-dimension planar target with multi-color characteristic points on the basis of the RGB model of a multi-color image; a multi-color camera obtains two images after color blending in a color space of multi-color patterns on the target simultaneously at one time; information of a characteristic point image made on the target and information of a characteristic point image of projection are obtained by image separation; and then the method respectively utilizes the separated characteristic point image made on the target to calibrate the camera, utilizes the separated characteristic point image of projection to calibrate the projector and finally utilizes the principle of binocular stereovision to calibrate the relative position relationship of the camera and the projector, thus completing the calibration of the whole active illumination three dimensional appearance measuring system. As just one image is needed to be shot at each calibration position, the method has the advantages of less measuring data and fast calibration speed.

An active-illumination scanning imager (10) comprises a light source (14) for producing a light beam (16), an optical collimator (18) for collimating the light beam, a scanning mirror (20) for scanning the light beam through a scene (12) to be imaged, and a light detector (22) arranged with respect to the scanning mirror in such a way as to receive a fraction (24) of said light beam reflected from said scene, via the scanning mirror. The imager further includes an actuator (40) configured to position the light source and / or the optical collimator relative to each other and / or the light detector relative to the scanning mirror, and a controller (46) operatively connected to the actuator for controlling the positioning.

The present invention relates to vision sensors based on an active illumination. An imaging system includes an imaging sensor and is adapted to process an image of a scene being illuminated by at least two different illumination sources each having a wavelength in the near infrared range. In a variant, the imaging system is adapted to use an illumination source having a modulation frequency below the modulation frequency used to perform a three dimensional time of flight measurement. In a variant, the imaging system is adapted to acquire a reduced number of samples per frame than used in time of flight measurements.

The invention generally relates to hybrid three-dimensional imagers and to a laser source for active illumination for hybrid three-dimensional imagers (i.e. 3D imagers that make combined use of different 3D imaging technologies). The invention is applicable to three-dimensional imaging systems which use a combination of different imaging techniques (hybrid technologies) to achieve a higher precision or a higher level of reliability.

The invention discloses a preparation method of a metal net membrane with self-cleaning and underwater super-oleophobic characteristics. The metal net membrane can achieve efficient oil-water separation and self cleaning. A traditional oil-water separation membrane has the defects that a preparation technology is complex, regeneration is difficult, and repeated using can not be achieved. With a copper net being a substrate, an anodic oxidation method is adopted for generating a copper hydroxide nanowire array, multiple layers of titanium dioxide are deposited on the nanowire array through layer-by-layer self-assembly, and the copper net membrane covered by a copper oxide / titanium dioxide composite membrane layer is generated through roasting. The net membrane is high in mechanical performance and resistant to high heat, has the super-hydrophilic and underwater super-oleophobic characteristics, can efficiently separate an oil-water mixture and meanwhile can perform self cleaning under photocatalysis active illumination of the titanium dioxide layer to achieve regeneration and repeated using. Compared with the preparation technology of the existing oil-water separation membrane, the method facilitates scale expansion, preparation is easy, raw materials are environmentally friendly, the cost is low, cyclic reuse can be achieved, and the net membrane is a novel oil-water separation net membrane which is more environmentally friendly and affordable.

The invention relates to an ultrahigh temperature multi-dimensional multi-functional strain measurement system based on an ultraviolet imaging digital-image-correlation(DIC) method and measurement method. The strain measurement system comprises ultraviolet cameras (1,5), coaxial long-working distance microscopic lenses (7,15), a monochromatic source (2), narrowband pass filters (6,16) having wavelengths corresponding to that of the monochromatic source, and high temperature speckles or friction scratch spots on a surface of a test piece. A high temperature image observation furnace and a matched high temperature mechanical testing device are used to apply force and thermal load on the test piece having a rectangular cross section or a cylindrical surface. A coaxial ultraviolet light active illumination test piece is adopted, and the ultrahigh temperature multi-dimensional multi-functional strain measurement system based on the ultraviolet imaging digital-image-correlation(DIC) method is used to acquire the surface image of the test piece. By adopting the DIC method, the two-dimensional or three-dimensional measurement of the high-precision real-time millimeter to micron-level visual field of the strain of the surface of the test piece is carried out. A principle is simple, and a structure is compact. By adopting cooperation between a high temperature image furnace and a high temperature stretching device, the real-time, high-precision measurement of the deformation of the surface of the test piece and the mechanical performance of the test piece in environment at a temperature in a range from indoor temperature to ultrahigh temperature of 2000 DEGC is carried out.

The invention discloses a laser-vision linked night invasion detection device, which realizes the detection and identification of invasion events by laser detection and active vision technology at night. The invention relates to invasion detection technology in security protection, in particular to optoelectronic and visual information processing technology-based invasion detection. The technical problems needing to be solved are to detect and identify the invasion events of pedestrians or vehicles in an environment with poor light at night, and prevent false alarms. In the device, a modulated laser beam is used as a detection light source and is matched with a photoelectric signal collector, a photoelectric signal amplifier and a photoelectric signal processor to form a front-end unit; and a camera provided with active illumination and an embedded image processor are used as a rear-end response processing unit. When the invasion events occur in a detection area, a laser photoelectric signal is interrupted to trigger an active vision system so as to realize linkage and improve the reliability of the invasion detection. The laser-vision linked night invasion detection device can be used for anti-invasion security detection around residential areas, storerooms, airports and other important places.

The invention relates to a method for sensing the range of objects captured by an image or video camera using active illumination from a computer display. This method can be used to aid in vision based segmentation of objects.In the preferred embodiment of this invention, we compute the difference between two consecutive digital images of a scene captured using a single camera located next to a display, and using the display's brightness as an active source of lighting. For example, the first image could be captured with the display set to a white background, whereas the second image could have the display set to a black background. The display's light reflected back to the camera and, consequently, the two consecutive images' difference, will depend on the intensity of the display illumination, the ambient room light, the reflectivity of objects in the scene, and the distance of these objects from the display and the camera. Assuming that the reflectivity of objects in the scene is approximately constant, the objects which are closer to the display and the camera will reflect larger light differences between the two consecutive images. After thresholding, this difference can be used to segment candidates for the object in the scene closest to the camera. Additional processing is required to eliminate false candidates resulting from differences in object reflectivity or from the motion of objects between the two images.

This Passive Long Range Acoustical Sensor relates to means of sensing acoustical sources and signals, including multi-channel acoustical signals, such as various types of sounds, vibrations, flutter, turbulence, and the like, and at long distances through a natural optical channel, without the use of a laser or other artificial illuminating means. A modified multi-channel embodiment of the Passive Long Range Acoustical Sensor may use a combination of natural optical channels and active illumination means, such as laser or other artificial illuminating means, of producing additional optical channels.

A woven fabric with active illumination and reflection characteristics is described. Light guiding fibers are used as the weft, bright threads are used as the warp, and the warp and the weft are interwoven, or partial lengths of the light guiding fibers are not interwoven with the bright threads. The light-emitting woven fabric has light guiding fibers and bright threads as the weft, and bright threads as the warp, the weft and the warp being interwoven, or partial lengths of the light guiding fibers not being interwoven with the bright threads.

The invention discloses a nighttime double fruit overlap tomato identification method based on overlap edge detection under active illumination. The method comprises the following steps of collecting a nighttime double fruit overlap tomato image under active illumination; using an OTSU method to perform image segmentation based on R-G color difference; performing image enhancement by using a homomorphic filtering method for the grayscale of the double fruit overlap tomato region extracted after image segmentation; extracting the edge, the contour and the overlapping edge of a spot area of the double fruit overlap tomato region after the image enhancement; judging the anteroposterior position relationship between the front unshielded tomato and the later-blocked tomato in the double fruit overlap tomato using a distance nearest method; and circularly fitting the overlapping edge and the front unshielded tomato contour to achieve recognition of the front unshielded tomato in the double overlap tomatoes. The method can realize the recognition of the front unshielded tomato in the double fruit overlap tomatoes at night, and has good recognition effect on overlap tomatoes with different overlapping rates, especially for double fruit overlap tomatoes with the large overlap rate.

The invention generally relates to hybrid three-dimensional imagers and to a laser source for active illumination for hybrid three-dimensional imagers (i.e. 3D imagers that make combined use of different 3D imaging technologies). The invention is applicable to three-dimensional imaging systems which use a combination of different imaging techniques (hybrid technologies) to achieve a higher precision or a higher level of reliability.

The invention relates to a tooth error vision measurement method for the involute of a straight toothed spur gear. According to the method, an involute tooth error measurement model is established based on a linear laser vision imaging system. In combination with the light stripe centric line detection technique, the corner point detection technique, the camera calibration technique and the like, the measurement of a to-be-measured object is realized. The method comprises the steps of 1) calibrating a vision imaging model under the effect of laser active illumination; 2) calibrating the parameters of a pseudo light plane equation; 3) calculating the three-dimensional coordinates of a to-be-measured point on the surface of a tooth profile; 4) calculating the tooth error for the involute of the surface of the tooth profile. According to the method, based on the vision measurement technique, the online non-contact detection is implemented. Meanwhile, based on the precise laser active illumination technique, the high measurement accuracy is ensured. The measurement accuracy of the method for gears of IT 6-8 level in accuracy is smaller than or equal to 0.015 mm.

The invention relates to an ultra-high-temperature strain field-temperature field synchronous measurement system and measurement method based on ultraviolet imaging. The strain field-temperature fieldsynchronous measurement system comprises an ultraviolet camera (1), a lens (2), a coaxial ultraviolet light source (3), a narrow-band-pass filter (4) corresponding to the wavelength of the ultraviolet light source, and a computer (6) for processing an image to obtain a strain field-temperature field. Before a strain field-temperature field is measured, a high-temperature-resistant speckle (9) ismanufactured on the surface of a test piece (10); a high-temperature mechanical testing machine is used for applying force and thermal load to the tested piece; the coaxial ultraviolet light is adopted for active illumination of the test piece; the ultra-high-temperature strain field-temperature field synchronous measurement system based on ultraviolet imaging is used for collecting surface imagesof the test piece; and a digital image correlation method and a system calibrated by a blackbody furnace in advance are used for measuring the strain field-temperature field of the surface of the test piece in a high-precision millimeter-to-micron view field mode. The principle is simple, the structure is compact, and the strain field-temperature field of the surface of the test piece in the environment from the room temperature to the 3273K ultrahigh temperature is synchronously measured in a high-precision mode through cooperation of the high-temperature mechanical test device.

A luminous fabric includes a plurality of first light-reflecting fiber units, a plurality of light-guiding fiber units, and a plurality of light-accumulating fiber units. The first light-reflecting fiber units are directed toward a first direction and spaced apart in intervals. The light-guiding fiber units are directed toward a second direction and spaced apart in intervals. Each light-guiding fiber unit has a lateral light-guiding portion. Some light-accumulating fiber units are drawn through the first light-reflecting fiber units, and some other light-accumulating fiber units are drawn through the light-guiding fiber units. Thereby, the luminous fabric can provide passive illumination when a light source is provided, and provide active illumination in dark settings. The light reflected by the luminous fabric is concentrated and uniformly distributed on one side thereof.

A plant morphometric parameter vision measuring instrument with the self-calibration function is provided. A high-resolution camera and a wide-angle lens are adopted to capture plant images in a non-contact manner and obtain measured parameter results by image processing, pattern recognition and numerical calculation. A ranging laser is adopted to detect the distance between the camera and the measured part and automatically correct and compensate, thus thoroughly overcoming the defect that the conventional measuring method has harsh requirements of the detection distance, and requires manual correction. A white LED light source is adopted to carry out active lighting, eliminate the impact of ambient light on the color parameter measurement and guarantee consistency and environmental suitability of the measurement results. A portable measuring instrument consisting of a high performance DSP chip and chargeable lithium batteries is adopted, and the measurement results are saved in the internal FLASH storage, thus meeting the operating requirements of farming investigations of overwhelming majority and ensuring higher measurement accuracy.