Patent ID: 9678211
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: G01S

Claim:
1. A method, comprising: emitting, from a source, an emission light beam at a scene; receiving, at the source, a reception light beam that represents the emission light beam reflected from the scene back to the source, the reception light beam containing a plurality of measurement points, each measurement point representing a distance from the source to the scene at a different spatial location within the scene; displaying at least some of the plurality of measurement points on a display screen, each of the at least some of the plurality of measurement points displayed on the display screen being displayed in two dimensions as a corresponding pixel having a filled-in value, the display screen comprising a two-dimensional (2D) plane having each of the pixel filled-in values displayed in a representation of the scene, each displayed pixel filled-in value being at a location on the display screen that corresponds to the spatial location of the corresponding measurement point within the scene, one or more locations on the display screen not having a pixel filled-in value having a pixel empty value; and interpolating a pixel filled-in value for at least one of the one or more locations on the display screen having a pixel empty value; wherein the step of interpolating comprises the steps of: assigning a depth value to each of the plurality of pixel filled-in values, each depth value comprising a distance from a corresponding one of the plurality of measurement points to the 2D plane; for each pixel on the display screen having a pixel empty value, searching a number of adjacent pixels, determining if each adjacent pixel has a pixel filled-in value or a pixel empty value, using at least two pixel filled-in values of corresponding adjacent pixels to determine a filled-in value for the pixel having a pixel empty value, and using the determined filled-in value for the filled-in value of the pixel having the pixel empty value; and for each pixel on the display screen having a pixel filled-in value, searching a number of adjacent pixels, determining if each adjacent pixel has a pixel filled-in value or a pixel empty value, using at least two pixel filled-in values of corresponding adjacent pixels to determine a filled-in value for the pixel having a pixel filled-in value, and using the determined filled-in value to replace the filled-in value of the pixel having the pixel filled-in value.