"Typical approaches to TOF imaging have often included illumination that is periodically modulated, in conjunction with an image-sensor pixel architecture capable of demodulating the reflected signal. This demodulation of an optical signal can then be used to extract the phase change of the optical signal, thus measuring distance.
odos imaging has developed TOF 3D imaging systems based on an alternative approach: pulsed illumination. The systems incorporating this approach operate at high spatial resolutions, matching the typical resolutions of intensity-only machine-vision cameras, but crucially providing the benefit of depth measurement at each pixel. Recently released is the first commercially available pulsed TOF system intended specifically for the machine-vision market, a system with a spatial resolution of 1280 × 1024 pixels."
"Pulsed TOF imaging provides a number of unique benefits. At the application level, system integrators can appreciate the benefits of operation in high ambient light conditions and simple synchronization of multiple systems; however, pulsed illumination is also the key enabler of high-resolution TOF imaging."
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| An example scene with 3D information shows the intensity image (left) and the depth image (right) [false color, 816 × 600 resolution]. |
