DEPTH CAMERA BASED ON STRUCTURED LIGHT AND STEREO VISION
First Claim
1. A depth camera system, comprising:
- an illuminator which illuminates an object in a field of view with a pattern of structured light;
a first sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a first frame of pixel data, the first sensor is optimized for shorter range imaging;
a second sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a second frame of pixel data, the second sensor is optimized for longer range imaging; and
at least one control circuit, the at least one control circuit derives a first structured light depth map of the object by comparing the first frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, derives a second structured light depth map of the object by comparing the second frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, and derives a merged depth map which is based on the first and second structured light depth maps.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A depth camera system uses a structured light illuminator and multiple sensors such as infrared light detectors, such as in a system which tracks the Motion of a user in a field of view. One sensor can be optimized for shorter range detection while another sensor is optimized for longer range detection. The sensors can have a different baseline distance from the illuminator, as well as a different spatial resolution, exposure time and sensitivity. In one approach, depth values are obtained from each sensor by matching to the structured light pattern, and the depth values are merged to obtain a final depth map which is provided as an input to an application. The merging can involve unweighted averaging, weighted averaging, accuracy measures and/or confidence measures. In another approach, additional depth values which are included in the merging are obtained using stereoscopic matching among pixel data of the sensors.
437 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A depth camera system, comprising:
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an illuminator which illuminates an object in a field of view with a pattern of structured light; a first sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a first frame of pixel data, the first sensor is optimized for shorter range imaging; a second sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a second frame of pixel data, the second sensor is optimized for longer range imaging; and at least one control circuit, the at least one control circuit derives a first structured light depth map of the object by comparing the first frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, derives a second structured light depth map of the object by comparing the second frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, and derives a merged depth map which is based on the first and second structured light depth maps. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A depth camera system, comprising:
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an illuminator which illuminates an object in a field of view with a pattern of structured light; a first sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a first frame of pixel data; a second sensor which senses reflected light from the object to obtain a second frame of pixel data; and at least one control circuit, the at least one control circuit derives a merged depth map which is based on first and second structured light depth maps of the object, and at least a first stereoscopic depth map of the object, where the at least one control circuit derives the first structured light depth map of the object by comparing the first frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, derives the second structured light depth map of the object by comparing the second frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, and derives the at least a first stereoscopic depth map by stereoscopic matching of the first frame of pixel data to the second frame of pixel data. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for processing image data in a depth camera system, comprising:
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illuminating an object in a field of view with a pattern of structured light; at a first sensor, sensing reflected light from the object to obtain a first frame of pixel data; at a second sensor, sensing reflected light from the object to obtain a second frame of pixel data; deriving a first structured light depth map of the object by comparing the first frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, the first structured light depth map includes depth values for pixels of the first frame of pixel data; deriving a second structured light depth map of the object by comparing the second frame of pixel data to the pattern of the structured light, the second structured light depth map includes depth values for pixels of the second frame of pixel data; determining whether refinement of the depth values of one or more pixels of the first frame of pixel data map is desired; and if the refinement is desired, performing stereoscopic matching of the one or more pixels of the first frame of pixel data to one or more pixels of the second frame of pixel data. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification