Patent ID: 7970177
Filing Date: 2011-06-28
Classification: G01B,G06T

Abstract:
1. A system for calculating distance comprising: an illuminator unit, wherein the illuminator unit illuminates a scene in a target area using a textured pattern creator and wherein the textured pattern creator includes a diffractive optical element, wherein the diffractive optical element comprises a substrate encoding a desired projection pattern as an amplitude profile or a phase profile, wherein the illuminator unit illuminates the scene using the textured pattern creator to generate a desired projection pattern as a textured pattern illumination, and wherein the desired projection pattern comprises a random or an irregular pattern; one or more camera units, wherein the one or more camera units captures two or more images of the target area from two or more physical locations; and a distance processor, wherein the textured pattern illumination visible in each of the two or more images of the target area is used to calculate distances to one or more points in the scene in the target area.