Patent ID: 6856355

Claim:
A color scannerless range imaging system for generating images of a scene, said system comprising: a illumination system for controllably illuminating the scene with modulated illumination, whereby some of the modulated illumination is reflected from objects in the scene; and an image capture device positioned in an optical path of the reflected illumination from the scene for capturing a plurality of images thereof, including (a) at least one image of the reflected modulated illumination, whereby the modulation of the reflected modulated illumination incorporates a phase delay corresponding to the distance of objects in the scene from the range imaging system, and (b) at least one color image of reflected unmodulated illumination; wherein the image capture system captures a plurality of images of the reflected modulated illumination, wherein each image incorporates the effect of a predetermined modulation frequency together with a phase offset unique for each image, and wherein each unique phase offset θ is given by θ i =2πi/3; i=0,1,2.