System and method of efficient illuminator-sensor synchronization to capture images

A method of illuminator-sensor synchronization to capture images, comprising:

• emitting light from at least one infra-red-related illuminator to have the light collected to form a sequence of frames with each frame forming an image;
• and
• timing the light to emit from the illuminator within vertical-blanks (vblanks) occurring between a last reset of a previous frame to a first read of a current frame happening consecutively after the previous frame so that the illuminator is turned on and off at the same continuous vblank,
• wherein the illuminator generates the light from at least one vertical-cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL),
• wherein a latency is inserted both between the last reset of the previous frame and the time the illuminator is turned on and the time the illuminator is turned off and the first read of the current frame.

A system for capturing images, comprising:

• at least one IR or NIR illuminator to emit light;
• at least one image capture device to capture a frame sequence and having at least one sensor to collect light from the illuminator by using an electronic shutter using vertical-blanks (vblanks) occurring between the last reset of a previous frame and a first read of a current frame consecutively after the previous frame of the sequence of frames;
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one illuminator;
• at least one memory communicatively coupled to at least one processor;
• and
• an illuminator-sensor sync unit operated by the processor and to operate by setting the illuminator to emit light at a time within or equal to the vblanks so that the illuminator is turned on and off at the time of the same vblank, and
• wherein the at least one camera sensor receives the light within the vblanks and senses the received light to convert the light into image data to form the frames in the frame sequence,
• wherein the illuminator comprises at least one vertical-cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) to provide the light as infra-red light,
• wherein a latency is inserted both between the last reset of the previous frame and the time the illuminator is turned on and the time the illuminator is turned off and the first read of the current frame.

An article having a non-transitory computer readable media comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on one or more processors, cause the processor(s) to operate by:

• generating a sequence of frames each associated with a captured image and comprising:
• operating an electronic shutter using vertical-blanks (vblanks) occurring between the last reset of a previous frame and a first read of a current frame consecutively after the previous frame of the sequence of frames;
• receiving, by at least one camera sensor, light from at least one infra-red-related illuminator and limited to a time within or equal to the vblanks so that the illuminator is turned on and off at the same vblank;
• and
• sensing the received light at the camera sensor to convert the light into image data to form the frames in the sequence of frames,
• wherein the illuminator comprises a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) based light source;
• wherein a latency is inserted both between the last reset of the previous frame and the time the illuminator is turned on and the time the illuminator is turned off and the first read of the current frame.