Abstract: A method, system and apparatus for viewing and imaging an underwater structure from a submersible platform, navigating along the structure and constructing a map of the structure in the forms of a photo-mosaic and a 3-D structural map. The system can include a submersible platform, at least two cameras coupled to the submersible platform, and stereovision matching logic programmed to simulate a frontal view of a target underwater structure from a fixed distance based upon an oblique view of the target underwater structure obtained by the cameras from a variable distance. The cameras can be forward or side mounted to the submersible platform and can include optical cameras, acoustical cameras or both. Preferably, the submersible platform can be a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), or an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Finally, the system further can include absolute positioning sensors.

Abstract: A multimodal point location method can include the steps of acquiring at least two different images of a target object with cameras of different imaging modalities, including acoustic and optical cameras, and matching point coordinates in each of the two different images to reconstruct a point in a three-dimensional reconstructed view of the target object. In this regard, the images can include two-dimensional images. In a preferred aspect of the invention, the matching step can include the steps of computing a rotation matrix and a translation vector for the images and further computing a conical or trigonometric constraint for the images.

Abstract: An interferometric thin film measuring device has a source of illumination light, a detector disposed in a return path of light reflected from a specimen of illumination light, a plurality of wavelength filters that filter light into image channels, a weight vector calculating device that receives detected signals, a look-up table storage unit that stores calibration weight vectors, a weight vector comparing unit that compares calibration weight vectors from the look-up table storage unit to subject weight vectors, and a data output/storage unit to output the measured thin film values.