SPACE-TIME MODULATED ACTIVE 3D IMAGER

摘要

Three-dimensional imagers have conventionally been constrained by size, weight, and power (“SWaP”) limitations, readout circuitry bottlenecks, and the inability to image in sunlit environments. As described herein, an imager can illuminate a scene with spatially and temporally modulated light comprising a viewpoint-invariant pattern. The imager can detect diffuse reflections from the illuminated scene to produce a first image. The first image is background-corrected and compared with respect to a known reference image to produce a depth image. The imager can perform in sunlit environments and has improved SWaP and signal-to-noise (SNR) characteristics over existing technologies.

主权项

1. A method of generating a three-dimensional image of a scene, the method comprising:
illuminating the scene with a monochromatic beam of light that is:
(1) spatially modulated with a pseudo-random, two-dimensional pattern; and(2) temporally modulated, acquiring, with a detector, at least one first image of the scene while the scene is illuminated with the monochromatic beam of light; acquiring, with the detector, at least one second image of the scene while the scene is not illuminated with the spatially modulated monochromatic light; determining a difference between the at least one first image and the at least one second image; and estimating the three-dimensional image of the scene based at least in part on the difference between the at least one first image and the at least one second image.