An Overview of Depth Cameras and Range Scanners Based on Time-of-Flight Technologies
This review paper provides a comprehensive overview of TOF camera technologies, which is useful for researchers and engineers working with 3D sensing and computer vision applications.
This paper provides an overview of Time-of-Flight (TOF) cameras, which measure scene depths by analyzing reflected light from controlled laser or LED sources. It describes the principles of both pulsed-light and continuous-wave modulated-light TOF cameras, reviews existing designs, calibration principles, and discusses the benefits and challenges of integrating TOF with color camera systems.
Time-of-flight (TOF) cameras are sensors that can measure the depths of scene-points, by illuminating the scene with a controlled laser or LED source, and then analyzing the reflected light. In this paper, we will first describe the underlying measurement principles of time-of-flight cameras, including: (i) pulsed-light cameras, which measure directly the time taken for a light pulse to travel from the device to the object and back again, and (ii) continuous-wave modulated-light cameras, which measure the phase difference between the emitted and received signals, and hence obtain the travel time indirectly. We review the main existing designs, including prototypes as well as commercially available devices. We also review the relevant camera calibration principles, and how they are applied to TOF devices. Finally, we discuss the benefits and challenges of combined TOF and color camera systems.