Photogrammetric laser system

Claim 1

A photogrammetric laser system comprising two modified stereo cameras adjustably affixed to a rigid base structure, each of said modified stereo cameras comprising: a main camera lens through which energy is received from a three dimensional scene; a dichroic filter allowing transmission of a certain amount of received laser energy through the main camera lens from a three dimensional scene and further allowing for reflection of a majority of the laser light received from said three dimensional scene; a video sensor to receive the transmitted light transmitted through said dichroic filter; an analog video recorder to receive the electronic signal output from the conventional video sensor; a 50/50 beam splitter to both reflect and transmit laser energy reflected from said dichroic filter; a cylindrical lens oriented parallel to said rigid base structure of the photogrammetric laser system to receive reflected energy from said 50/50 beam splitter; a cylindrical lens oriented perpendicular to said rigid base structure of the photogrammetric laser system to receive energy transmitted through said 50/50 beam splitter; two linear detector arrays to receive the energy focused from each of said cylindrical lenses; a digital recorder to record the output from said linear detector arrays; said photogrammetric laser system further comprising a digital recorder playback unit to allow the digital signals recorded to be subsequently inputted for further processing; said data passing means whereby the digital signal recorded from the linear detector arrays can be subsequently processed; said data processing means further comprising a digital image filter means whereby calculation of the central point of the signal recorded from said linear detector arrays is accomplished and whereby the X and Y location within the image plane of each said modified stereo camera can be calculated; said data processing means further adapted to calculate the three dimensional coordinates of any point in said three dimensional scene illuminated by said laser based upon photogrammetric data reduction techniques; said data processing means further adapted to store the data from said digital and analog recorders.

Claim 7

A method of determining three dimensional locations of points in a scene comprising the steps of: illuminating the points in the scene using a laser; receiving reflected laser energy from the scene by two modified stereo cameras separated by a rigid adjustable shutter to prove a known base distance for subsequent calculations, each of which is modified to comprise a normal camera lens, two linear detector arrays, dichroic filters, video camera, and cylindrical lenses; synchronizing the sampling of the linear detector arrays with the illumination of the scene by the laser such that each point in a scene is separately illuminated and recorded; dividing the incoming laser energy received by each modified stereo camera through the normal camera lens of each said camera, using said dichroic filters of each said modified stereo camera to allow some portion of said laser energy to be received by a video camera; further comprising the substep of recording the resulting signal from the video sensor on an analog video recorder; said method further comprising the step of reflecting a majority of the incoming laser energy to a beam splitter means in each said modified stereo camera whereby a portion of the laser energy is reflected onto a cylindrical lens parallel to the base of the photogrammetric laser system and whereby a portion of the laser energy is transmitted to a cylindrical lens perpendicular to the base of the photogrammetric laser system; focusing the laser energy transmitted by each cylindrical lens onto said linear detector arrays of each of said modified stereo cameras; digitally recording the output of the linear detector arrays, determining the X, Y and Z locations of points in said scene via photogrammetric techniques.

Claim 8

A method of determining three dimensional locations of points in a scene comprising the steps of: illuminating the points in the scene using a laser; receiving reflected laser energy from the scene by two modified stereo cameras separated by a rigid adjustable shutter to prove a known base distance for subsequent calculations, each of which is modified to comprise a normal camera lens, two linear detector arrays, dichroic filters, video camera, and cylindrical lenses; synchronizing the sampling of the linear detector arrays with the illumination of the scene by the laser such that each point in a scene is separately illuminated and recorded; dividing the incoming laser energy received by each modified stereo camera through the normal camera lens of each said camera, using said dichroic filters of each said modified stereo camera to allow some portion of said laser energy to be received by a video camera; further comprising the substep of recording the resulting signal from the video sensor on an analog video recorder; said method further comprising the step of reflecting a majority of the incoming laser energy to a beam splitter means in each said modified stereo camera whereby a portion of the laser energy is reflected onto a cylindrical lens parallel to the base of the photogrammetric laser system and whereby a portion of the laser energy is transmitted to a cylindrical lens perpendicular to the base of the photogrammetric laser system; focusing the laser energy transmitted by each cylindrical lens onto said linear detector arrays of each of said modified stereo cameras; digitally recording the output of the linear detector arrays, determining the X, Y and Z locations of points in said scene via photogrammetric techniques.