Back to results
US 11,637,977 B2Granted
Image sensors and sensing methods to obtain time-of-flight and phase detection information
AssigneeCorephotonics Ltd.
InventorsNadav Geva, Michael Scherer, Ephraim Goldenberg, Gal Shabtay
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Indirect time-of-flight (i-ToF) image sensor pixels, i-ToF image sensors including such pixels, stereo cameras including such image sensors, and sensing methods to obtain i-ToF detection and phase detection information using such image sensors and stereo cameras. An i-ToF image sensor pixel may comprise a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel including a photodiode, a single microlens covering the plurality of sub-pixels and a read-out circuit for extracting i-ToF phase signals of each sub-pixel individually.
Claims17
An image sensor pixel, comprising:
- a) a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel including a photodiode;
- b) a microlens covering the plurality of sub-pixels;
- and
- c) a read-out circuit (ROC) for extracting indirect time-of-flight (i-ToF) phase signals of each sub-pixel individually, wherein the image sensor pixel is an i-ToF image sensor pixel, wherein the i-ToF image sensor pixel includes a switch, wherein in one state the switch is closed so that the sub-pixels together form one pixel and the ROC reads out the one pixel for generating an i-ToF depth map, and wherein in another state the switch is opened so that the ROC reads out the sub-pixels individually for generating a stereo depth map.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- a) providing an indirect time-of-flight (i-ToF) image sensor pixel that includes a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel including a photodiode, wherein the plurality of sub-pixels is covered by a microlens;
- and
- b) using a read-out circuit (ROC) to read out i-ToF phase signals of each sub-pixel individually, by:
- obtaining a stereo depth map calculated from the i-ToF phase signals,
- obtaining an i-ToF depth map calculated from the i-ToF phase signals,
- analyzing the stereo depth map and the i-ToF depth map for assigning stereo scores to segments of the stereo depth map and ToF scores to the segments of the i-ToF depth map, and
- generating a fused depth map by using stereo depth map data for segments that have high stereo scores and using ToF depth map data for segments that have high ToF scores.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.