Depth camera resource management
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsSergio Ortiz Egea, Onur C. Akkaya, Cyrus Bamji
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The described implementations relate to managing depth cameras. One example can include a depth camera that includes an emitter for illuminating light on a scene and a sensor for sensing light reflected from the scene. The example can also include a resource-conserving camera control component configured to determine when the scene is static by comparing captures and/or frames of the scene from the sensor. The resource-conserving camera control component can operate the depth camera in resource constrained modes while the scene remains static.
Claims24
A system, comprising:
- a depth camera comprising an emitter and a sensor;
- and,
- a controller configured to:
- operate the emitter and the sensor of the depth camera in a first mode to obtain multiple captures of a scene and generate depth frames of the scene;
- compare a first depth frame of the scene to a second depth frame to determine whether the scene is changing;
- when the scene is unchanging, operate the sensor without the emitter in a resource-conserving mode to obtain additional captures;
- determine whether the scene remains unchanged by comparing a first individual additional capture to a second individual additional capture;
- and,
- when the comparing is inconclusive, operate both the emitter and the sensor in an intermediate resource usage mode to obtain further captures, otherwise continue to operate only the sensor in the resource-conserving mode to obtain the further captures.
A method, comprising:
- operating a depth camera to obtain frames from multiple captures of a scene;
- comparing a first frame of the scene to a second frame of the scene to determine whether the scene is static;
- when the scene is static, lowering an individual frame acquisition parameter to obtain additional captures;
- determining whether the scene remains static by comparing individual captures;
- and,
- when the determining is inconclusive, incrementally increasing resources allocated to the depth camera for additional captures until a conclusive determination is made whether the scene remains static.
A system, comprising:
- a depth camera comprising an emitter and a sensor;
- and,
- a controller configured to:
- operate the emitter and the sensor of the depth camera in a first mode to generate depth frames of a scene from captures of the scene;
- compare a first depth frame of the scene to a second depth frame to determine whether the scene changed;
- when the scene did not change, operate the depth camera in a resource-conserving mode to obtain additional captures of the scene;
- attempt to make a determination whether the scene continues unchanged by comparing individual additional captures of the scene;
- and,
- when the determination is inconclusive, employ incrementally more resources to obtain further additional captures until a conclusive determination is made whether the scene changed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.