For my senior design project I messed around with some depth mapping by taking a photo using two cameras at different points. The patterns projected are an effort by me to help give the program something to compare.

The image is a bit confusing, and was taken with a camera, but the basic idea is that red items in the right image are closer.

Although we did not use this method in the final project, creating this along with some other scanning programs was quite interesting. I also always forget about Bayer filters, and it takes me a while to remember that I need to compensate by working with an (at least) 2 pixel resolution. Ideally I would like to work with a Foveon x3 or B&W sensor sometime in the future, as having to “undo” the  Bayer filter makes things more complicated.

All things considered, this and the project turned out fairly well under the circumstances, but for a lot of reasons that semester was terrible. Although, I do support the senior design class as it do at least give you some preparation for the real world. I learned that sometimes the sales team asks for things that are simply impossible to achieve, and until you set mildly realistic goals you will just stress yourself to death. Also, 1/16 in accuracy over 8ft, on an irregular shaped object, by two untrained workers in under 20 minuets, is really hard. IF we had just focused on 1/4 in from the start we might have had more than just a prototype.