Depth sensing using temporal coding

• Main Authors: Hasbun, Robert, Grossinger, Nadav, Garcia, Ricardo, Romano, Nitay, Kantor, Niv
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.10.2021
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING

In one embodiment, a system includes at least one projector configured to project a plurality of projected patterns, where a projected lighting characteristic of each of the projected patterns varies over a time period in accordance with an associated predetermined temporal lighting-characteristic pattern, a camera configured to capture images of detected patterns, and one or more processors configured to: determine, for each detected pattern, a detected temporal lighting-characteristic pattern based on variations in a detected lighting characteristic of the detected pattern, identify a detected pattern that corresponds to one of the projected patterns by comparing at least one of the detected temporal lighting-characteristic patterns to at least one of the temporal lighting-characteristic patterns, and compute a depth associated with the detected patterns based on the one or more of the projected patterns, the detected pattern, and a relative position between the camera and the projector.