Patent Document ID: 20150054922
Application ID: 14502230
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A scanner for determining the 3D geometry of at least a part of the surface of an object, said scanner comprising: at least one camera accommodating an array of sensor elements, a light source for generating a probe light incorporating a spatial pattern, an optical system for transmitting the probe light towards the object thereby illuminating at least a part of the object with said spatial pattern in one or more configurations and for transmitting at least a part of the light returned from the object to the camera, a focus element within the optical system for varying a position of the focus plane of the spatial pattern on the object, and a processor configured to: compare a reference signal representing the probe light incorporating the spatial pattern with an input signal representing the light returned from the object to the camera for each of a plurality of image pixels over a range of focus plane positions, or each of a plurality of groups of image pixels over a range of focus plane positions, generate a correlation measure based on the comparison for each of the plurality of image pixels or each of the plurality of groups of image pixels, and identify, for each of the plurality of image pixels or each of the plurality of groups of image pixels, an extremum of the correlation measure to determine an in-focus plane position for each of a plurality of image pixels or each of the plurality of groups of image pixels.