Systems and Methods for Measuring Depth Using Images Captured by Camera Arrays

摘要

A camera array, an imaging device and/or a method for capturing image that employ a plurality of imagers fabricated on a substrate is provided. Each imager includes a plurality of pixels. The plurality of imagers include a first imager having a first imaging characteristics and a second imager having a second imaging characteristics. The images generated by the plurality of imagers are processed to obtain an enhanced image compared to images captured by the imagers. Each imager may be associated with an optical element fabricated using a wafer level optics (WLO) technology.

主权项

1. A camera array, comprising:
a plurality of cameras configured to capture images of a scene, where each camera comprises:
optics comprising at least one lens element and at least one aperture; anda sensor comprising a two dimensional array of pixels and control circuitry for controlling imaging parameters; a controller configured to control operation parameters of the plurality of cameras; and an image processing pipeline module comprising a parallax confirmation and measurement module; wherein one of the plurality of cameras includes a central camera and the plurality of cameras forms:
at least one row of cameras above the central camera;at least one row of cameras below the central camera;at least one column of cameras to the left of the central camera; andat least one column of cameras to the right of the central camera; wherein images captured by the plurality of cameras include different occlusions sets, where the occlusion set of a first camera is the portion of a scene visible to a second camera in the plurality of cameras that is occluded from the view of the first camera; wherein cameras having the same imaging characteristics and spectral filter are located in locations selected from the group consisting of:
locations including at least one row in the camera array above the central camera and at least one row in the camera array below the central camera; andlocations including at least one column in the camera array to the left of the central camera and at least one column in the camera array to the right of the central camera. wherein the image processing pipeline module comprises a parallax confirmation and measurement module configured to measure parallax using images captured by the plurality of cameras by:
detecting parallax-induced changes that are consistent across all of the images taking into account the position of the cameras that captured the images; andignoring pixels in the images captured by the plurality of cameras that are in the occlusion set of the central camera; and wherein the parallax confirmation and measurement module is further configured to estimate distance to an object visible in images captured by the plurality of cameras using measured parallax.