Efficient acquisition of 3-D surface coordinates would have obvious utility in machine vision applications such as metrology for quality control, obstacle detection for motion control, and target location for docking. Yet there is no ubiquitous method for 3-D digitizing. Extant technologies suffer from a variety of short-coming including near-field blindness, cumbersome calibration schemes, limited resolution and data rates, weight and scale penalties, and high cost. This research explores use of a new method for range finding based on diffraction to develop a new class of 3-D image acquisition devices. These would be effective alternatives to available technologies in ranges from tens of microns to meters. Potential applications cover microscopy, endoscopy, eye-in-hand cameras for end effectors, work area surveillance cameras, and production line measurement cameras.
