Depth camera based on structured light and stereo vision

A depth camera system, comprising:

• an illuminator which illuminates an object in a field of view with a pattern of structured light;
• a first sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a first frame of pixel data;
• a second sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a second frame of pixel data;
• and
• at least one control circuit, the at least one control circuit derives a merged depth map which is based on first and second structured light depth maps of the object, and at least a first stereoscopic depth map of the object, where the at least one control circuit derives the first structured light depth map of the object by comparing the first frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, derives the second structured light depth map of the object by comparing the second frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, and derives the at least a first stereoscopic depth map by stereoscopic matching of the first frame of pixel data to the second frame of pixel data.

A method for processing image data in a depth camera system, comprising:

• illuminating an object in a field of view with a pattern of structured light;
• at a first sensor, sensing reflected light from the object to obtain a first frame of pixel data;
• at a second sensor, sensing reflected light from the object to obtain a second frame of pixel data;
• deriving a first structured light depth map of the object by comparing the first frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, the first structured light depth map includes depth values for pixels of the first frame of pixel data;
• deriving a second structured light depth map of the object by comparing the second frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, the second structured light depth map includes depth values for pixels of the second frame of pixel data;
• determining whether refinement of the depth values of one or more pixels of the first frame of pixel data map is desired;
• and
• if the refinement is desired, performing stereoscopic matching of the one or more pixels of the first frame of pixel data to one or more pixels of the second frame of pixel data.