A vision sensor has been developed that uses only two lenses, a split prism, and a detector to acquire an image. This system uses the split prism to create a split image such that the displacement of the image is proportional to its range from the sensor. Prototype sensors have been examined both theoretically and experimentally, and have been found to measure object ranges with less than ±2 percent error. Acquisition of a single-point depth measurement is sufficiently fast for real-time use, and the optical components needed to build the sensor are inexpensive. The effect that each optical component has on the performance of the sensor is also discussed, and an optimal system design procedure is developed.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Topics:
Sensors, Prisms (Optics), Design, Displacement, Engineering prototypes, Errors
1.
Bassett, J., 1989, “A Split Prism Range Finder for Computer Vision,” M.Sc. Thesis, School of Engineering, Clarkson University.
2.
Bastuscheck, C. M., Schonberg, E., Schwartz, J. T., and Sharir, M., 1986, “Object Recognition by 3-Dimensional Curve Matching,” Robotics Report No. 63, Robotics Research Activity, New York University.
3.
Blais
F.
, and
Rioux
M.
,
1986
, “
BIRIS: A Simple 3-D Sensor
,”
SPIE Optics, Illumination, and Image Sensing for Machine Vision
, Vol.
728
, pp.
235
–
242
.
4.
Jarvis
R. A.
,
1983
a, “
A Perspective on Range-Finding Techniques for Computer Vision
,”
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
, Vol.
PAMi-5
, pp.
122
–
139
.
5.
Jarvis
R. A.
,
1983
b, “
A Laser Time-of-Flight Range Scanner for Robotic Vision
,”
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
, Vol.
PAMI-5
, pp.
505
–
512
.
6.
Levine
M. D.
,
O’Handley
D. A.
, and
Yagi
G. M.
,
1973
, “
Computer Determination of Depth Maps
,”
Computer Graphics and Image Processing
, Vol.
2
, pp.
134
–
150
.
7.
Pentland
A. P.
,
1987
, “
A New Sense for Depth of Field
,”
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
, Vol.
PAMI-9
, pp.
523
–
531
.
8.
Rioux
M.
, and
Blais
F.
,
1986
, “
Compact Three-Dimensional Camera for Robotic Applications
,”
Journal of the Optical Society of America
, Vol.
3
, pp.
1518
–
1521
.
9.
Schwartz, J. T., 1983, “Structured Light Sensors for 3-D Robot Vision,” Robotics Report No. 8, Robotics Research Activity, New York University.
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