Transferring the coordinate system of a three-dimensional camera to the incident point of a two-dimensional camera

1. A method, comprising:

acquiring, by a processing system including at least one processor, a three-dimensional coordinate system associated with a three-dimensional camera and a first reference point associated with the three-dimensional camera;

acquiring, by the processing system, a two-dimensional coordinate system associated with a two-dimensional camera and a second reference point associated with the two-dimensional camera;

aligning, by the processing system, the three-dimensional coordinate system with the two-dimensional coordinate system, based on a fixed and known positional relationship between the first reference point and the second reference point, to obtain a fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system; and

transferring, by the processing system, the three-dimensional coordinate system to a datum point of the two-dimensional coordinate system, using the fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the processing system, the three-dimensional camera, and the two-dimensional camera are part of a distance sensor.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distance sensor further includes a memory to store the first reference point, the second reference point, and the fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first reference point comprises a mechanical reference point on a housing of the three-dimensional camera.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second reference point comprises a front nodal point of a lens of the two-dimensional camera.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first reference point comprises an origin of the three-dimensional coordinate system, and the second reference point comprises an origin of the two-dimensional reference point.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the three-dimensional camera and the two dimensional camera are integrated as a single system.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the three-dimensional camera and the two-dimensional camera comprise separate, non-integrated systems.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the three-dimensional coordinate system is determined via a calibration process that stores a relationship between an object position with respect to the three-dimensional camera and a point position in a three-dimensional image captured by the three-dimensional camera.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a z axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is defined as a line that passes through a center of an imaging sensor of the two dimensional camera and through a corresponding point in a two-dimensional image captured by the two-dimensional camera.

11. The method of claim 10 , where an x axis and a y axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system are defined along respective pixel array directions of the imaging sensor of the two-dimensional camera.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transferring comprises:

computing, by the processing system, a translational component and a rotational component of an amount of movement needed to convert a point (x, y, z) in the three-dimensional coordinate system to a position (p x , p y ) on an imaging sensor of the two-dimensional camera having a depth.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein p x is calculated as Tan −1 (x c /z c )f c , p y is calculated as Tan −1 (y c /z c )f c , (x c , y c , z c ) is a position of the point (x, y, z) in the three-dimensional coordinate system when transferred to the two-dimensional coordinate system, and f c is a focal length of the two-dimensional camera.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aligning comprises:

positioning the three-dimensional camera so that a positioning system on a housing of the three-dimensional camera engages a positioning system on a housing of the two-dimensional camera.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processing system including at least one processor, wherein, when executed by the processing system, the instructions cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

acquiring a three-dimensional coordinate system associated with a three-dimensional camera and a first reference point associated with the three-dimensional camera;

acquiring a two-dimensional coordinate system associated with a two-dimensional camera and a second reference point associated with the two-dimensional camera;

aligning the three-dimensional coordinate system with the two-dimensional coordinate system, based on a fixed and known positional relationship between the first reference point and the second reference point, to obtain a fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system; and

transferring the three-dimensional coordinate system to a datum point of the two-dimensional coordinate system, using the fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system.

16. A distance sensor, comprising:

a processing system including at least one processor; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the processing system, wherein, when executed, the instructions cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

acquiring a three-dimensional coordinate system associated with a three-dimensional camera and a first reference point associated with the three-dimensional camera;

acquiring a two-dimensional coordinate system associated with a two-dimensional camera and a second reference point associated with the two-dimensional camera;

aligning the three-dimensional coordinate system with the two-dimensional coordinate system, based on a fixed and known positional relationship between the first reference point and the second reference point, to obtain a fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system; and

transferring the three-dimensional coordinate system to a datum point of the two-dimensional coordinate system, using the fixed positional relationship between the three-dimensional coordinate system and the two-dimensional coordinate system.

17. The distance sensor of claim 16 , wherein the aligning comprises:

positioning the three-dimensional camera so that a positioning system on a housing of the three-dimensional camera engages a positioning system on a housing of the two-dimensional camera.

18. The distance sensor of claim 17 , wherein the positioning comprises:

inserting a pin of the positioning system on the housing of the three-dimensional camera into a bore of the positioning system on the housing of the two-dimensional camera; and

inserting a pin of the positioning system on the housing of the two-dimensional camera into a bore of the positioning system on the housing of the three-dimensional camera.

19. The distance sensor of claim 18 , wherein the first reference point is located near the bore of the positioning system on the housing of the three-dimensional camera.

20. The distance sensor of claim 19 , wherein the second reference point is located near the pin of the positioning system on the housing of the two-dimensional camera.