3D Scene Scanner and Position and Orientation System

Abstract

A hand-held mobile 3D scanner ( 10 ) for scanning a scene. The scanner ( 10 ) comprises a range sensor ( 11 ) that is arranged to sense the location of surface points in the scene relative to the scanner ( 10 ) and generate representative location information, a texture sensor ( 12 ) that is arranged to sense the texture of each surface point in the scan of the scene and generate representative texture information, and a position and orientation sensor ( 13 ) that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner ( 10 ) during the scan of the scene and generate representative position and orientation information. A control system ( 14 ) is also provided that is arranged to receive the information from each of the sensors and generate data representing the scan of the scene.

1 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner for scanning a scene comprising:
 a range sensor that is arranged to sense the location of surface points in the scene relative to the scanner and generate representative location information;   a texture sensor that is arranged to sense the texture of each surface point in the scan of the scene and generate representative texture information;   a position and orientation sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner during the scan of the scene by interacting with multiple reference targets located in random positions about the scene and generate representative position and orientation information; and   a control system that is arranged to receive the information from each of the sensors and generate data representing the scan of the scene, wherein the positions of the reference targets are unknown to the control system at start-up of the control system.   
     
     
         2 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the data generated relates to scanned surface points in the scene and comprises information on the 3D positions of those surface points in space and texture information in relation to those surface points. 
     
     
         3 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 2  wherein the data further comprises viewpoint information in relation to the viewpoint from which the surface points were scanned by the scanner. 
     
     
         4 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 2  wherein the control system is arranged to generate the texture information for the data based on texture values sensed by the texture sensor from multiple viewpoints during the scan. 
     
     
         5 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the control system is arranged to generate a texture model representing the scan of the scene. 
     
     
         6 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the data generated by the control system is in the form of rich-3D data. 
     
     
         7 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the control system is arranged to generate a 3D substantially photo-realistic representation of the scene from the data. 
     
     
         8 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the control system comprises a user interface that is operable by a user to control scanning parameters. 
     
     
         9 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the control system comprises an output display that is arranged to generate a progressive representation of the scene as it is being scanned. 
     
     
         10 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the control system is arranged to filter out data associated with scanned surface points in the scene that fall outside scanning zones that are selected by the user. 
     
     
         11 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the control system is arranged to increase or decrease the resolution of the range and texture sensors for particular scanning zones that are selected by the user. 
     
     
         12 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the range sensor comprises any one of the following: a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) device, triangulation-based device, or a non-scanning time-of-flight camera device. 
     
     
         13 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the texture sensor comprises a colour camera that is arranged to capture digital images of the scene, each digital image comprising an array of pixels and each pixel or group of pixels corresponding to a surface point in the scan of the scene from which texture information can be extracted. 
     
     
         14 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the texture sensor comprises a multi-spectral laser imager that is arranged to sense texture information relating to the scanned surface points of the scene. 
     
     
         15 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 1  wherein the position and orientation sensor comprises an optical tracking device that senses the position and orientation of the scanner by tracking visible reference targets located about the scene. 
     
     
         16 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 15  wherein the optical tracking device comprises one or more direction sensors that are arranged to detect visible reference targets and generate direction information relating to the direction of the visible reference targets relative to the scanner, the optical tracking device processing the direction information to determine the position and orientation of the scanner. 
     
     
         17 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 16  wherein the direction sensors are optical sensors that are each arranged to view outwardly relative to the scanner to provide direction information relating to any visible reference targets. 
     
     
         18 . A hand-held mobile 3D scanner according to  claim 15  wherein the position and orientation sensor additionally comprises an inertial sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner and provide representative position and orientation information if the optical tracking device experiences target dropout. 
     
     
         19 . A portable 3D scanning system for scanning a scene comprising:
 a hand-held mobile scanner comprising:
 a range sensor that is arranged to sense the location of surface points in the scene relative to the scanner and generate representative location information; 
 a texture sensor that is arranged to sense the texture of each surface point in the scan of the scene and generate representative texture information; and 
 a position and orientation sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner during the scan of the scene and generate representative position and orientation information; 
   
       multiple reference targets for placing randomly about the scene, the position and orientation sensor interacting with detectable reference targets to sense the position and orientation of the scanner; and 
       a control system that is arranged to control the scanner and its sensors and the reference targets, receive the information from each of the sensors, and generate data representing the scan of the scene, wherein the positions of the reference targets are unknown to the control system at start-up of the control system. 
     
     
         20 . A method of scanning a scene comprising the steps of:
 operating a hand-held mobile scanner to scan the scene, the scanner comprising:
 a range sensor that is arranged to sense the shape of the object(s) in the scene on a surface point-by-point basis and generate representative shape information; 
 a texture sensor that is arranged to sense the texture of the object(s) in the scene on a surface point-by-point basis and generate representative texture information; and 
 a position and orientation sensor that is arranged to sense the position and orientation of the scanner in a local reference frame by interacting with multiple reference targets located in random positions about the scene and generate representative position and orientation information, the positions of the reference targets being unknown to the control system at start-up of the control system; 
   
       obtaining the shape, texture, and position and orientation information from the sensors; 
       processing the shape, texture, and position and orientation information; and 
       generating data representing the scan of the scene.