High-Speed 3D Measurements

Many applications, such as in-line production quality control, machine-integrated 3D-measurement, 3D-measurement of a moving person in medicine and sport, and security (3D-person recognition), require a 3D-frame rate of more than 30 3D-frames per second. Conventional picture capturing and projection technology does not fulfill today’s high-speed performance requirements. For this reason researchers at Fraunhofer IOF have been developing a micro-optical array projection technology and a new pattern-projection method (e.g. gobo-projection) to project patterns with a multi-kilohertz frame rate. Using this technology and this method, the researchers have succeeded in capturing 1500 3D-frames per second with each frame composed of 1 million 3D-pixels. By using high-speed camera systems in conjunction with gobo-projection, 50,000 3D-images / s with 250,000 voxel were realized. This will make the measurement of highly dynamic processes and moving objects in 3D possible.