Fast microscopic inline computational 3D imaging

Inline inspection is becoming an essential tool for industrial high-quality production. The demand of fast acquisition speeds and high-precision 3D imaging are often at the limit of what is physically possible. Production environments often require strict optical specifications such as wide field of view at a high spatial and depth resolution, dealing with complex object material properties like dark, matt and shiny reflections. To address these challenges, we developed a machine vision system which evolves the AITs Inline Computational Imaging (ICI) technology enabling for simultaneous 2D & 3D inspection of moving parts at resolutions down to the μm-range. Our new ici:microscopy technology consists of an active light vision system which combines light field (LF) and photometric stereo imaging techniques (PS) into a single sensor solution and works largely independent from surface properties of the inspected matter. This enables for precise quality control in numerous industrial applications for challenging objects in production environment.