Three-dimensional motion obtaining apparatus and three-dimensional motion obtaining method

A three-dimensional motion obtaining method to be performed by a three-dimensional motion obtaining apparatus including a light source, a charge amount obtaining circuit including pixels and an electrode control circuit, and a processor, each of the pixels of the charge amount obtaining circuit including a photoelectric converter comprising a first electrode, the method comprising:

• controlling, by the processor, a light emission pattern for the light source, and a first exposure pattern and a second exposure pattern for each of the pixels of the charge amount obtaining circuit, the second exposure pattern having an exposure period that at least partially overlaps an exposure period of the first exposure pattern;
• controlling a potential of the first electrode by the electrode control circuit, the electrode control circuit being controlled by the processor, to thereby control the first exposure pattern;
• obtaining, by the charge amount obtaining circuit for each of the pixels, a first charge amount under the first exposure pattern and a second charge amount under the second exposure pattern;
• estimating, by the processor, a distance to a subject for each of the pixels of the charge amount obtaining circuit on the basis of the light emission pattern and on the basis of the first charge amount and the second charge amount of each of the pixels of the charge amount obtaining circuit obtained by the charge amount obtaining circuit;
• estimating, by the processor, an optical flow for each of the pixels of the charge amount obtaining circuit on the basis of the first exposure pattern, the second exposure pattern, and the first charge amount and the second charge amount of each of the pixels of the charge amount obtaining circuit obtained by the charge amount obtaining circuit;
• and
• outputting, by the processor, the estimated distance and the estimated optical flow.