Improvements and Applications of the Image-Based Distance Measuring System

[[abstract]]The paper presents practical improvements on the Image-Based Distance Measuring System, achieving the capability of 3-dimensional measurement of distant objects. The configuration of the proposed measurement is very simple, consisting of only a single CCD camera and two laser projectors formed in parallel. Because of the disposition of the laser projectors and the CCD camera, two laser-projected spots will appear on the same scan line of CCD images. Based on an established relationship between pixel counts and photographing distance, 3-D measurement and area information of distant objects can be obtained by using only one scan line in the image frame.