Illumination optical system and 3D image acquisition apparatus including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9874637-B2
Application number	US-201113244329-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2011
Priority date	Dec 14, 2010
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

An illumination optical system of a 3-dimensional (3D) image acquisition apparatus and a 3D image acquisition apparatus including the illumination optical system. The illumination optical system of a 3D image acquisition apparatus includes a beam shaping element which outputs light having a predetermined cross-sectional shape which is proportional to a field of view of the 3D image acquisition apparatus. The beam shaping element may adjust a shape of illumination light according to its cross-sectional shape. The beam shaping element may uniformly homogenize the illumination light without causing light scattering or absorption.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An illumination optical system of a 3-dimensional (3D) image acquisition apparatus having a field of view, the illumination optical system comprising:
a light source;
a beam shaping element which uniformly homogenizes light emitted from the light source and emits light having a predetermined cross-sectional shape; and
a lens apparatus which focuses light emitted from the beam shaping element,
wherein an aspect ratio of a cross-sectional shape of a light exit surface end of the beam shaping element is the same as an aspect ratio of the field of view of the 3D image acquisition apparatus, such that a field of illumination of the illumination optical system matches with the field of view of the 3D image acquisition apparatus.

2. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined cross-sectional shape of the light emitted from the beam shaping element is the same as a cross-sectional shape of the light exit surface of the beam shaping element.

3. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , further comprising a matching lens which is disposed between the light source and the beam shaping element and guides the light emitted from the light source to a light-incidence surface of the beam shaping element.

4. The illumination optical system of claim 3 , further comprising an anti-reflection coating disposed on the light-incidence surface of the beam shaping element and an anti-reflection coating disposed on the light-exit surface of the beam shaping element.

5. The illumination optical system of claim 3 , further comprising a reflection coating disposed on an inner circumference of the beam shaping element, wherein the light incident on the light-incidence surface of the beam shaping element travels through the beam shaping element toward the light light-exit surface of the beam shaping element while being reflected off the reflection coating disposed on the inner circumferential surface.

6. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , wherein the beam shaping element comprises an integrator rod made of a transparent material.

7. The illumination optical system of claim 6 , wherein the integrator rod has a rectangular cross-section.

8. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , further comprising an optical waveguide which guides the light emitted from the light source into the beam shaping device, wherein a first end of the optical waveguide is attached to the light source, and a second end of the optical waveguide is attached to a side of the beam shaping element.

9. The illumination optical system of claim 8 , wherein an optical axis of the optical waveguide is inclined with respect to the side of the beam shaping element.

10. The illumination optical system of claim 8 , wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light sources, the optical waveguide comprises a plurality of optical waveguides, and each of the light sources is attached to the beam shaping element by one of the plurality of optical waveguides.

11. The illumination optical system of claim 10 , wherein the beam shaping element has a rectangular cross-section, and at least one of the plurality of light sources and at least one of the plurality of optical waveguides are attached to each of four sides of the beam shaping element.

12. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of matching lenses, wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light sources, one of the plurality of matching lenses is disposed on an optical path between the beam shaping device and each of the plurality of light sources.

13. The illumination optical system of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the plurality of light sources and at least one of the plurality of matching lenses have an optical axis which is tilted with respect to the light-incidence surface of the beam shaping element.

14. The illumination optical system of claim 12 , wherein the beam shaping element has a tapered shape such that an area of the light-exit surface is smaller than an area of the light-incidence surface.

15. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of matching lenses, wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light sources, the beam shaping element comprises a plurality of beam shaping elements corresponding to the plurality of light sources, and one of the plurality of matching lenses is disposed on an optical path between one of the plurality of light sources and a corresponding one of the plurality of beam shaping elements.

16. The illumination optical system of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of beam shaping elements are disposed in an array.

17. The illumination optical system of claim 16 , wherein a width-to-height ratio of the array of beam shaping elements is proportional to the predetermined cross-sectional shape.

18. The illumination optical system of claim 1 , wherein the lens apparatus comprises a zoom lens.

19. A 3-dimensional (3D) image acquisition apparatus comprising:
an objective lens which focuses an image of an object;
an image processing unit which processes the image focused by the objective lens and generates an image signal;
the illumination optical system of claim 1 which illuminates the object; and
a control unit which controls operations of the objective lens, the image processing unit, and the illumination optical system;
wherein a cross-sectional shape of light emitted from a light exit surface end of the beam shaping element is proportional to a field of view of the 3D image acquisition apparatus.

20. The 3D image acquisition apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the predetermined cross-sectional shape of the light emitted from the beam shaping element is the same as a cross-sectional shape of a light exit surface of the beam shaping element.

21. A 3-dimensional (3D) image acquisition apparatus comprising:
an illumination optical system comprising:
a light source,
a beam shaping element which homogenizes light emitted from the light source and outputs light having a predetermined cross-sectional shape, and
a lens apparatus which focuses light emitted from the beam shaping element;

an image processing unit which processes an image and generates an image signal;
wherein an aspect ratio of the predetermined cross-sectional shape is the same as an aspect ratio of a field of view of the image processing unit, such that a field of illumination of the illumination optical system matches with the field of view of the image processing unit.

Assignees

• Park Yong-Hwa
• Shirankov Alexander
• You Jang-Woo
• Rozhkov Oleg Vladimirovich
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Park Yong-Hwa
• Shirankov Alexander
• You Jang-Woo
• Rozhkov Oleg Vladimirovich

Classifications

• H04N23/56

  provided with illuminating means · CPC title

• H04N5/2256

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G01S7/4814 Primary

  of transmitters alone · CPC title

• G01S17/89 Primary

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title

• H04N13/0253

  Electricity · mapped topic