Mixed depth object detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12014518-B2
Application number	US-202217900392-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2022
Priority date	Jul 17, 2020
Publication date	Jun 18, 2024
Grant date	Jun 18, 2024

Abstract

A method includes obtaining a point cloud captured by a depth sensor, and image data captured by an image sensor, the point cloud and the image data representing a support structure bearing a set of objects; obtaining an image boundary corresponding to an object from the set of objects; determining a portion of the point cloud corresponding to the image boundary; selecting, from the determined portion, a subset of points corresponding to a forward surface of the object; and generating a three-dimensional position of the object based on the forward surface.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
obtaining a plurality of three-dimensional positions derived from images captured by an image sensor and a point cloud captured by a depth sensor;
selecting a subset of the three-dimensional positions corresponding to an object;
projecting the selected three-dimensional positions to a sequence of candidate depths;
determining, at each candidate depth, a cost function associated with the projections; and
generating a combined three-dimensional position at a selected one of the candidate depths having a lowest one of the cost functions determined at each candidate depth,
wherein obtaining each of the three-dimensional positions includes:
obtaining point cloud and image data representing a support structure bearing the object;
obtaining an image boundary corresponding to the object;
determining a portion of the point cloud corresponding to the image boundary;
selecting, from the determined portion, a subset of points corresponding to a forward surface of the object, and
generating the three-dimensional position based on the forward surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining that the three-dimensional positions correspond to the object by comparing item identifiers associated with the three-dimensional positions.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost function includes a sum of distances between the projections.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the combined three-dimensional position includes determining an average of the projections to the selected candidate depth.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the candidate depths include depths corresponding to each of the three-dimensional positions.

Assignees

• Zebra Tech Corp

Inventors

• Gorodetsky Vlad
• Gallina Giorgio
• Joshi Anshul V
• Rzeszutek Richard Jeffrey
• Lam Joseph

Classifications

• G06T7/13

  Edge detection · CPC title

• G01S17/894 Primary

  Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar · CPC title

• G06T2207/10028

  Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds · CPC title

• G06T7/70

  Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras (camera calibration G06T7/80) · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title