Object distance determination from image

A system for determining a distance to a scene object, the system comprising:

• an image capture device having a coded aperture and an image sensor, the image sensor being positioned out of a focus plane for the scene object;
• a receiver for receiving a first image of a scene from the image sensor;
• a detector for detecting at least two image objects in the image corresponding to ghost images of the scene object resulting from different openings of the coded aperture in response to an optical characteristic of the scene object, the optical characteristic being a radiation characteristic of the object towards the image capture device;
• and
• a distance estimator for determining a distance to the scene object in response to a displacement in the image of the at least two image objects.

A method of determining a distance to a scene object, the method comprising:

• receiving a first image of a scene from an image sensor of an image capture device having a coded aperture, the image sensor being positioned out of a focus plane for the scene object;
• detecting at least two image objects in the image corresponding to ghost images of the scene object resulting from different openings of the coded aperture in response to an optical characteristic of the scene object, the optical characteristic being a radiation characteristic of the object towards the image capture device;
• and
• determining a distance to the scene object in response to a displacement in the image of the at least two image objects.