Computerized imaging of target animals

Abstract

A method of generating and storing three-dimensional digital data indicative of a sporting trophy is provided. The method may be implemented in relation to a wide variety of sporting trophy applications. A sportsman can provide a sporting trophy to a scanning system to obtain three-dimensional image data relative to the sporting trophy. Sporting-relevant measurements can be computed based on the stored three-dimensional image data.

1 . A method of generating digital data indicative of a target animal, the method comprising:
 providing the target animal to a camera having a range finder, the target animal positioned a distance from the camera;   engaging the camera and range finder to obtain two-dimensional image data indicative of the target animal and the distance from the camera to the target animal; and   providing the two-dimensional image data and the distance to image measurement software to measure at least one element of the target animal in the picture.   
   
   
       2 . The method  claim 1 , wherein the at least one element is at least a portion of a set of antlers. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , and further comprising determining a score based on the at least one element. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , and further comprising generating a plurality of two-dimensional images of at least a portion of the target animal. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4 , and further comprising generating three dimensional image data of the at least a portion of the target animal based on the plurality of two-dimensional images. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , and further comprising computing at least one sporting-relevant measurement from the three-dimensional data. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the sporting-relevant measurement includes automatic calculation of volume of the at least a portion of the target animal. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 6 , and further comprising determining a score based on the at least one sporting-relevant measurement. 
   
   
       9 . A method of generating a score relative to a target animal, the method comprising:
 generating a plurality of two-dimensional digital data representative of the target animal via a camera, the camera having a rage finder to determine distance between the target animal and the camera;   providing the distance between the target animal and the camera;   generating three-dimensional digital data representative of the target animal;   storing the three-dimensional data;   computing at least one sporting-relevant measurement based on the three-dimensional digital data; and   computing a score based on the at least one sporting-relevant measurement.