<title>Laser eye: a new 3D sensor for active vision</title>

Abstract

This paper describes a new sensor that combines visual information from a CCD camera with sparse distance measurements from an infra-red laser range-finder. The camera and the range- finder are coupled together in such a way that their optical axes are parallel. A mirror with a different reflectivity for visible and for infra-red light is used to ensure collinearity of effective optical axes of the camera lens and the range-finder. The range is measured for an object in the center of the camera field of view. The Laser Eye is mounted on a robotic head and is used in an active vision system for an autonomous mobile robot (called ARK).