Gated imaging apparatus, system and method

A gated imaging apparatus that is employable by a moving or movable platform for depth mapping of a scene of a geographic area in which the platform is located, the gated imaging apparatus comprising:

• at least one pulsed light illuminator for actively illuminating the scene with pulsed light generated by the at least one pulsed light illuminator;
• at least one image sensor that comprises a plurality of pixel elements for receiving reflections responsive to illuminating the scene with the pulsed light;
• a controller for gating at least one of the plurality of pixel elements of the at least one image sensor for converting the reflections into pixel values to generate reflection-based images that have at least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges and an overlapping DOF region;
• a memory;
• and
• a processor that is operative to determine, by executing instructions stored in the memory, based on at least one first pixel value of a first DOF in the overlapping DOF region and further based on at least one second pixel value of a second DOF in the overlapping DOF region, depth information of one or more objects located in the overlapping DOF region of the scene.

A computer program embodied in an information carrier comprising a tangible computer-readable storage device to control the operation of and/or for executing the following steps:

• generating pulsed light by at least one pulsed light illuminator of a gated imaging system employed by a moving platform for actively illuminating the scene;
• gating at least one of a plurality of pixel elements of at least one image sensor of the gated imaging system for converting reflections that are received by the at least one image sensor responsive to illuminating the scene with the pulsed light into pixel values for generating reflection-based images that have at least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges and an overlapping DOF region;
• and
• determining, based on at least one first pixel value of a first DOF in the overlapping DOF region, and further based on at least one second pixel value of a second DOF in the overlapping DOF region, depth information of one or more objects located in the overlapping DOF region of the scene.