Patent Document ID: 4792694
Application ID: 06853231
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method, of obtaining three-dimensional distance information, comprising the steps of: forming images of an object system on an image sensing surface by using at least three image focusing systems so that at least three object images of the object system are formed on respective image sensing areas; correlating the image point of an object point which are formed on said respective image sensing areas by said image focusing systems by using a relationship which exists between the geometrical positional relationships among said image points and the geometrical positional relationships among said image focusing systems themselves and between said image focusing systems and said image sensing areas; and obtaining the three-dimensional distance information of said object point by using information relating to the positions of at least two of the corresponding image points on the image sensing areas and information relating to the geometrical positional relationship between said two corresponding image points and the image focusing systems, wherein said correlating of the image points comprises allocating the object images formed on said respective image sensing areas to respective imaginary planes which are superimposed with a spatial relationship corresponding to the spatial relationship of said image focusing systems, and detecting those image points on the imaginary planes which lie on the same straight line.