Patent ID: 8648902
Filing Date: 2014-02-11
Classification: G02B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image processing apparatus comprising: a polarized light source section that sequentially illuminates an object with three or more kinds of plane polarized light rays, of which the planes of polarization have mutually different angles; an image capturing section that sequentially captures an image of the object that is being illuminated with each of the three or more kinds of plane polarized light rays and directly receives light that is returning from the object by way of no polarizers, thereby getting an intensity value; a varying intensity processing section that obtains a relation between the angle of the plane of polarization and the intensity value of each pixel based on a signal representing the intensity value supplied from the image capturing section, thereby generating an intensity maximizing angle image that is defined by the angle of the plane of polarization that maximizes the intensity value with respect to each said pixel and a degree of intensity modulation image that is defined by the ratio of the amplitude of variation in the intensity value caused by the change of the plane of polarization to an average intensity value with respect to each said pixel; and a normal estimating section that estimates, based on the intensity maximizing angle image and the degree of intensity modulation image, a normal to a tilted surface in a V-groove on the object's surface on a pixel-by-pixel basis.