Patent ID: 7898569

Claim:
A system for calculating distances to objects within three-dimensional space in an environment comprising horizontal and vertical lines using an angled axis machine vision system comprising: a first camera; a second camera mounted coplanar to said first camera wherein said first camera and said second camera comprise collinear horizontal center lines; a camera mount coupled with said first camera and said second camera wherein said camera mount is at a rotation of a first axial angle with between 0 and 90 degrees about a roll axis defined as parallel to ground; and, a computer configured to perform a distance calculation wherein said computer is coupled with said first camera and said second camera and configured to calculate a distance based on a first picture obtained from said first camera and a second picture obtained from said second camera to a feature found along an epipolar line parallel to said collinear horizontal center lines and wherein said first axial angle is selected to differ from horizontal and vertical lines at 0 and 90 degrees respectively in an environment to increase useable detail and minimize errors in said distance calculation.