Patent Document ID: 8619184
Application ID: 12866304
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A camera adapter for imaging an object in cooperation with a digital camera with an optical illumination source, a camera sensor, and a shutter release, the camera adapter comprising: a light input for accepting light from the optical illumination source; a light output for directing light onto the camera sensor; an object facing interface for directing light to the object and back from the object into the adapter; means in the camera adapter for directing light from the optical illumination source received at the light input to illuminate the object via the object facing interface; means in the camera adapter for directing light from the object received at the object facing interface onto the camera sensor via the light output; and means for processing at least one image captured by the camera sensor to generate depth resolved information from the object, further comprising an interferometer configuration using a main splitter, where light from the said optical source is delayed along a reference path within the adapter and the path length from the main splitter to the object and back defines an object path and an optical path difference adjusting block to alter the optical path difference between the object path and the reference path; wherein the light along the reference path and light along the object path define an object and a reference beam respectively, which after crossing the main splitter are incident on an optical dispersion element placed between the main splitter and the said light output to disperse light as a function of wavelength onto the camera sensor, where the two beams interfere.