Importance

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Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus for determining the distance of a surface patch of an object from a camera system and also for focusing a surface patch of such object as well as obtaining an improved focus image of the surface patch. The present invention also includes a method of determining a set of unknown parameters of a linear shift-invariant system. The camera system of the present invention has an aperture through which light enters, an image detector, an image forming optical system having first and second principal planes and a focal length, the second principal plane arranged closer to the image detector than the first principal plane, a light filter, a camera controller, and an image processor operatively connected to the image detector and to the camera controller. The camera is set to a first set of camera parameters which include the distance(s) between the second principal plane and the image detector, the diameter (D) of the camera aperture, the focal length (f) of the camera system and the spectral characteristic (.lambda.) of light transmitted by the light filter. The apparatus and the method of the present invention are widely applicable and they significantly enhance the efficiency of image processing to provide the distance of an object and required changes in the camera parameters to focus the object.

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First Claim