Patent ID: 8596525

Claim:
A system for topographic targeting in a data storage system, the system comprising: a spot scanner coupled with a carriage configured to sweep the spot scanner in a scan direction to acquire raw topographic data indicating a depth at each of a plurality of locations within a scan window; a processor, in communication with the spot scanner, and configured to: receive a request for topographic scanning of a target; acquire a target model according to the request, wherein the target model identifies one or more of a target width, a target height, a target focus distance, a target surface texture parameter, a target color parameter, or a target topology map; acquire spot scanner settings associated with the target model; and direct the spot scanner to acquire the raw topographic data according to the request and according to the scanner settings; a decoder, in communication with the processor, and configured to: decode the raw topographic data to generate a target profile for a purported target within the scan window, the target profile comprising a scanned target type and scanned target location; and determine whether the target profile is valid according to the target model; and a target profile store, in communication with the decoder, and configured to store a verified target record for the target including the scanned target type and the scanned target location of the purported target when the target profile is valid according to the target model.