A new operation mode for depth-focused high-sensitivity ToF range finding
This work addresses depth sensing for low-power applications by enhancing localized sensitivity, though it is incremental as it builds on existing correlation time-of-flight methods.
The paper tackled the problem of improving depth resolution for specific scene features in time-of-flight range sensing by introducing pulsed correlation time-of-flight (PC-ToF), which achieved depth resolutions down to 2mm with low modulation frequency and optical power.
We introduce pulsed correlation time-of-flight (PC-ToF) sensing, a new operation mode for correlation time-of-flight range sensors that combines a sub-nanosecond laser pulse source with a rectangular demodulation at the sensor side. In contrast to previous work, our proposed measurement scheme attempts not to optimize depth accuracy over the full measurement: With PC-ToF we trade the global sensitivity of a standard C-ToF setup for measurements with strongly localized high sensitivity -- we greatly enhance the depth resolution for the acquisition of scene features around a desired depth of interest. Using real-world experiments, we show that our technique is capable of achieving depth resolutions down to 2mm using a modulation frequency as low as 10MHz and an optical power as low as 1mW. This makes PC-ToF especially viable for low-power applications.