Illumination for zoned time-of-flight imaging
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsOnur C. AKKAYA, Cyrus S. BAMJI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A zoned time-of-flight (ToF) arrangement includes a sensor and a steerable light source that produces an illumination beam having a smaller angular extent than the field of view (FoV) of the sensor. The illumination beam is steerable within the sensor's FoV to optionally move through the sensor's FoV or dwell in a particular region of interest. Steering the illumination beam and sequentially generating a depth map of the illuminated region permits advantageous operations over ToF arrangements that simultaneously illuminate the entire sensor's FoV. For example, ambient performance, maximum range, and jitter are improved. Multiple steering alternative configurations are disclosed, including mechanical, electro optical, and electrowetting solutions.
Claims20
A system for zoned time-of-flight (ToF) imaging, the system comprising:
- an illumination module comprising:
- a light source;
- a focusing or collimating element operative to focus or collimate light emitted from the light source;
- a diffusing element operative to diffuse light emitted from the light source;
- and
- a steering element operative to steer light emitted from the light source, wherein the collimating element, the diffusing element, and the steering element are configured so that light emitted from the light source passes through the collimating element and the diffusing element, and is directed as an illumination beam in a defined direction by the steering element;
- wherein the steering element comprises at least one element selected from the following:
- a mechanical steering component, a refracting lens, an electro optical component, and an electrowetting component;
- and
- a sensor module operative to generate a depth map of a scene within at least a portion of a field of view of the sensor by sensing light emitted from the light source and reflected from the scene, wherein the sensor module has a field of view that has a greater angular extent than the illumination beam, and wherein the illumination beam is steerable within the field of view of the sensor module.
A system for zoned time-of-flight (ToF) imaging, the system comprising:
- an illumination module comprising:
- a light source;
- a diffusing element operative to diffuse light emitted from the light source;
- and
- a steering element operative to steer light emitted from the light source, wherein the diffusing element and the steering element are configured so that light emitted from the light source passes through the diffusing element and is directed as an illumination beam in a defined direction by the steering element.
A method for zoned time-of-flight (ToF) imaging, the method comprising:
- steering, with a steering element, an illumination beam to a first region within a field of view of a sensor module, wherein the sensor module has a field of view that has a greater angular extent than the illumination beam, and wherein the illumination beam comprises light emitted from a light source;
- diffusing the light emitted from the light source;
- sensing, with the sensor module, light emitted from the light source and reflected from a scene;
- and
- generating, with the sensed light, a depth map for at least the first region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.