Systems, methods and, media for determining object motion in three dimensions using speckle images

A method for three dimensional motion estimation, the method comprising:

• causing a light source to emit light toward a scene, wherein the light is substantially temporally coherent around a center frequency λ;
• causing an image sensor to capture a first defocused image of the scene at a first time, wherein the first defocused image includes a first speckle pattern generated by an object in the scene reflecting the light emitted by the light source;
• causing the image sensor to capture a second defocused image of the scene at a second time, wherein the second defocused image includes a second speckle pattern generated by the object in the scene reflecting the light emitted by the light source;
• generating a first scaled version of the first defocused image by expanding the first defocused image by a predetermined amount;
• generating a second scaled version of the first defocused image by contracting the first defocused image by the predetermined amount;
• comparing the first defocused image to the second defocused image;
• comparing the first scaled version of the first defocused image to the second defocused image;
• comparing the second scaled version of the first defocused image to the second defocused image;
• determining axial motion of the object between the first time and the second time based on the comparisons;
• and
• determining lateral motion of the object between the first time and second time based on the comparisons.

A non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for three dimensional motion estimation, the method comprising:

• causing a light source to emit temporally coherent light toward a scene;
• causing an image sensor to capture a first defocused image of the scene at a first time, wherein the first defocused image includes a first speckle pattern generated by an object in the scene reflecting the light emitted by the light source;
• causing the image sensor to capture a second defocused image of the scene at a second time, wherein the second defocused image includes a second speckle pattern generated by the object in the scene reflecting the light emitted by the light source;
• generating a first scaled version of the first defocused image by expanding the first defocused image by a predetermined amount;
• generating a second scaled version of the first defocused image by contracting the first defocused image by the predetermined amount;
• comparing the first defocused image to the second defocused image;
• comparing the first scaled version of the first defocused image to the second defocused image;
• comparing the second scaled version of the first defocused image to the second defocused image;
• determining axial motion of the object between the first time and the second time based on the comparisons;
• and
• determining lateral motion of the object between the first time and second time based on the comparisons.