Integrated system for quickly and accurately imaging and modeling three-dimensional objects

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A.
Overview 1.
Overall System FIG.
1 is a block diagram that illustrates the invention in its broadest aspect.
Referring to FIG.
1, a Field Digital Vision (FDV) module 10 includes a scanning sensor for scanning an object 20 and for sensing the position in three-dimensional space of selected points on the surface of the object 20.
The FDV module 10 generates a point cloud 30 which represents the sensed positions of the selected points.
The point cloud 30 also represents other attributes of the sensed positions, such as reflectivity, surface color and texture.
A Computer Graphics Perception (CGP) module 40 interacts with the FDV to provide control and targeting functions for the FDV module 10 sensor.
In addition, using the point cloud, the CGP module 40 recognizes geometric shapes represented by groups of points in the point cloud 30, and the CGP module generates a CGP model 42 that represents these geometric shapes.
From the CGP model 42, the CGP module 40 generates a further model usable by computer-aided design (CAD) tools 50.
The CAD tools may be conventional.
FIG.
1A shows the overall flow of how one may use an embodiment of the invention to scan an object, organize acquired points, fit geometric shapes to the organized point, manipulate the fitted geometric shapes, and display the resulting manipulated geometric shapes.
2.
FDV Module Overview Referring to FIG.
2, the FDV 10 includes a scanning laser system (lidar) 210 that scans points of the object 20 and that generates a lidar data signal that precisely represents the position in three-dimensional space of each scanned point.
The lidar data signal for groups of scanned points collectively constitute the point cloud 30.
In addition, a video system 220, preferably including both wide angle and narrow angle CCD cameras, is provided.
The wide angle CCD camera of the video system 220 acquires a video image of the object 20 and provides, to the CGP 40 via a control/interface module 230 of the FDV 10, a signal that represents the acquired video image