METHOD FOR PRODUCING IMAGES WITH DEPTH INFORMATION AND IMAGE SENSOR

摘要

The invention relates to the production of images associating, with each point of the image, a depth, i.e a distance between the observed point and the camera that produces the image. A light source emits N trains of light pulses. For each train of rank i = 1 to N, charge is integrated in a short time window of length Tint that starts with a time shift ti relative to the pulse, this time shift representing a journey time for the light pulse between the light source and the sensor after reflection from a point placed a distance di from the sensor. The time shift ti is the same for all the light pulses of the ith pulse train but the time shifts ti for the N trains are different from one another in order to correspond to different distances relative to the sensor. The charge photogenerated by the pulses of a given train is accumulated; then the accumulated charge is read to produce an image of rank i representing the pixels located at the distance di. Observation of a scene comprises producing N different images by virtue of which a distance may be associated with each pixel.