Patent attributes
An image capturing method, comprising: scanning with a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor an environment of the LIDAR sensor, wherein the LIDAR sensor progressively rotates about a rotation axis at a step angle, and when scanning each step angle the LIDAR sensor generates a point cloud of a portion of the environment in a predetermined pattern; scanning with an image sensor assembly mechanically coupled to the LIDAR sensor the environment in synchronization with the scanning by the LIDAR sensor to generate on an imaging plane of the image sensor assembly a sequence of image pixel rows of a portion of the environment corresponding to the point cloud of the portion of the environment; and combining the point cloud with the sequence of image pixel rows for the scanning of each step angle to obtain a fused image of the portion of the environment.
