U.S. patents available from 1976 to present.
U.S. patent applications available from 2005 to present.

Three-dimensional input device

Patent 6268918 Issued on July 31, 2001. Estimated Expiration Date: Icon_subject June 15, 2019. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Patent References

Apparatus and method for 3-D measurement using holographic scanning
Patent #: 4758093
Issued on: 07/19/1988
Inventor: Stern ,   et al.

Method and apparatus for measuring profile of three-dimensional object
Patent #: 4794262
Issued on: 12/27/1988
Inventor: Sato ,   et al.

Measuring system with improved method of reading image data of an object Patent #: 5668631
Issued on: 09/16/1997
Inventor: Norita, et al.

Inventors

Assignee

Application

No. 332969 filed on 06/15/1999

US Classes:

356/602, Triangulation356/226, Detector and indicator electrical coupling (e.g., amplifying or attenuating)356/233, With variable light aperture size356/627, Volume356/639Scanning

Examiners

Primary: Font, Frank G.
Assistant: Ratliff, Reginald A.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

International Class

G01B 011/24

Foreign Application Priority Data

1998-06-18 JP

Abstract

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.

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