Three dimensional range imaging system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing in detail, FIG.
1 diagrammatically illustrates a 3-dimensional imaging system generally referred to by reference numeral 10 associated with a radiation source 12 such as an optical pulse emitting laser generator and a data collecting receiver 14 at a single receiving location spaced by some distance from a target object 16.
As diagrammed in FIG.
1, the source 12 emits brief luminant energy pulses 18 along a divergent radiation beam path 20 to the target 16.
Each pulse 18 has a temporal duration T and hence a length in space equal to T/c, where c is the speed of light.
The shortness of the pulse length T/c enables the achievement of good depth resolution through echo pulses 22 of imaging energy reflected from the target 16 toward the receiver 14 along a convergent radiation beam path 24 as also diagrammed in FIG.
1.
The received echo pulse length is T/c+Z, where Z is the depth of the target object 16 so that for a pulse duration of T=0.
1 nanoseconds, for example, a depth resolution of Z=3 cm could be obtained.
The source 12 is a coherent or incoherent source of light such as a laser device or a laser generator just as long as the duration T of each pulse 18 emitted therefrom is much shorter than Z/c.
The echo pulses 22 of imaging energy are reflected from various portions of the target object 16 exposed to the luminant energy of the impinging radiation pulse 18.
The target portions, from which pulses 22 are reflected, are not obscured from view at the receiving location of receiver 14 and have reflective surfaces at different distances from the receiving location so as to provide three dimensional imaging information.
Each echo pulse 22, as hereinbefore characterized, arrives at the receiver 14 to be collected by an input collector 26 as diagrammed in FIG.
2, forming a beam 28 containing the target image information.
From the collector 26, the beam 28 is fed to a beam splitter 30 from which split beam portions 32 and 34 are conducted along separate paths