Method for epipolar time of flight imaging
AssigneeCarnegie Mellon University
InventorsSrinivasa Narasimhan, Supreeth Achar, Kiriakos Kutulakos, Joe Bartels, William Whittaker
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Abstract
Energy-efficient epipolar imaging is applied to the ToF domain to significantly expand the versatility of ToF sensors. The described system exhibits 15+ m range outdoors in bright sunlight; robustness to global transport effects such as specular and diffuse inter-reflections; interference-free 3D imaging in the presence of many ToF sensors, even when they are all operating at the same optical wavelength and modulation frequency; and blur- and distortion-free 3D video in the presence of severe camera shake. The described embodiments are broadly applicable in consumer and robotics domains.
Claims22
A system comprising:
- a. a modulated light source for projecting a steerable sheet of modulated light and;
- b. a sensor, the modulated light source and sensor in a rectified stereo configuration such that the light sheets projected by the modulated light source lies in an epipolar plane between the projector and the sensor;
- and
- c. a microcontroller for synchronizing the modulated light source and the sensor.
A method comprising:
- a. projecting a sheet of modulated light along a series of epipolar planes defined by a modulated light source and a sensor placed in a rectified stereo configuration, the series of epipolar planes defining a field-of-view;
- b. imaging a single row of illuminated pixels in the illuminated epipolar plane;
- and
- c. determining the depth of each pixel in the single row of illuminated pixels
A non-transitory computer-readable media containing software that when executed, performs the functions of:
- a. projecting a sheet of modulated light along a series of epipolar planes defined by a modulated light source and a sensor placed in a rectified stereo configuration, the series of epipolar planes defining a field-of-view;
- b. imaging a single row of illuminated pixels in the illuminated epipolar plane;
- c. determining the depth of each pixel in the single row of illuminated pixels;
- and
- d. creating a depth map based on the depth of each pixel in each illuminated epipolar plane within the defined field-of-view.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.