Methods and systems for power-efficient subsampled 3d imaging

A Time of Flight (ToF) system, comprising:

• an emitter array comprising one or more emitters configured to emit optical signals;
• a detector array comprising one or more detectors that are configured to output respective detection signals responsive to the optical signals that are reflected from a target;
• and
• a control circuit configured to:
• control the emitter array and/or the detector array to generate first detection signals associated with a first subset of the optical signals that are received by the detector array during a first duration that corresponds to a distance subrange of a distance range of the ToF system;
• control the emitter array and/or the detector array to generate second detection signals associated with a second subset of the optical signals that are received by the detector array during the first duration that corresponds to the distance subrange by varying, by respective time offsets, an elapsed time between an emission of the second subset of the optical signals by the one or more emitters and activation of the one or more detectors to detect the second subset of the optical signals;
• and
• determine whether the target based is within the distance subrange based on the first and second detection signals.

A Time of Flight (ToF) system, comprising:

• one or more emitters that are configured to emit optical signals responsive to emitter control signals;
• one or more detectors that are configured to be activated responsive to detector strobe signals, and are configured to output detection signals responsive to the optical signals that are reflected from a target;
• and
• a control circuit configured to:
• output the detector strobe signals corresponding to a respective distance subrange of the ToF system at different offsets or delays relative to respective timings of the emitter control signals;
• or
• output the emitter control signals at different offsets or delays relative to respective timings of the detector strobe signals corresponding to a respective distance subrange of the ToF system.