GATED IMAGING APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20190056498A1
• Filed: 12/21/2016
• Published: 02/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2016
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: BrightWay Vision Ltd.
• Original Assignee: BrightWay Vision Ltd.
• Inventors: SONN, Ezri, OVED, Amit, LEVI, Eyal, GRAUER, Yoav, DAVID, Ofer
• Application Number:
  US16/078,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20190056498A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/18 wherein range gates are used
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4865 Time delay measurement, e.g. time-of-flight measurement, time of arrival measurement or determining the exact position of a peak peak detection in noise, signal conditioning G01S7/487

Abstract

A method for depth mapping of objects in a scene by a system of a moving/movable platform is disclosed, comprising actively illuminating the scene with pulsed light that is generated by at least one pulsed light illuminator; receiving, responsive to illuminating the scene, reflections on at least one image sensor that comprises a plurality of pixel elements; gating at least one of the plurality of pixel elements of the at least one image sensor for converting the reflections into pixel values for generating reflection-based images that have at least two depth-of-field ranges and an overlapping DOF region; and determining, based on at least one first pixel value of a first DOF in the overlapping DOF region, and based on at least one second pixel value of a second DOF in the overlapping DOF region, depth information of one or more objects located in the overlapping DOF region of the scene.

Claims

1. A method for depth mapping objects in a scene by an apparatus of a moving or movable platform, the method comprising:

actively illuminating the scene with pulsed light that is generated by at least one pulsed light illuminator;

receiving, responsive to illuminating the scene with the pulsed light, reflections on at least one image sensor that comprises a plurality of pixel elements;

gating at least one of the plurality of pixel elements of the at least one image sensor for converting the reflections into pixel values for generating reflection-based image data that is descriptive of at least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges and an overlapping DOF region; and

determining, based on at least one first pixel value of a first DOF in the overlapping DOF region, and further based on at least one second pixel value of a second DOF in the overlapping DOF region, depth information of an object located in the overlapping DOF region of the scene.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the actively illuminating of the scene is performed by the pulsed light comprising a plurality of trains of light pulses for imaging a respective plurality of DOFs.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

selectively gating at least two pixel subsets of the plurality of pixels according to respective subset gating parameters for imaging by the at least two pixel subsets, respectively, the at least two DOF ranges of the scene.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising:

gating the at least two pixel subsets such to obtain multiple exposures for at least one of the least two DOF ranges.

8. The method according of claim 7 comprising:

reading out pixel data that is associated with the at least two pixel subsets to obtain one or more image frames that are descriptive of the at least two DOF ranges and their overlapping DOF range.

9. The method according to claim 8,

wherein gating the at least two pixel subsets is performed a plurality of times to obtain at least two different overlapping DOF regions in which the object is located;

and

depth mapping the pixel data descriptive of the object based on values relating to the at least two different overlapping DOF regions.

12. The method according of claim 5, wherein the at least two pixel subsets are associated with respective Regions-of-Interest (ROIs) of the scene being illuminated during an illumination period.

3-4. -4. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

10-11. -11. (canceled)

13-19. -19. (canceled)

20. A gated imaging apparatus that is employable by a moving or movable platform for depth mapping of a scene of a geographic area in which the platform is located, the gated imaging apparatus comprising:

at least one pulsed light illuminator for actively illuminating the scene with pulsed light generated by the at least one pulsed light illuminator;

at least one image sensor that comprises a plurality of pixel elements for receiving reflections responsive to illuminating the scene with the pulsed light;

a controller for gating at least one of the plurality of pixel elements of the at least one image sensor for converting the reflections into pixel values to generate reflection-based images that have at least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges and an overlapping DOF region;

a memory; and

a processor that is operative to determine, by executing instructions stored in the memory, based on at least one first pixel value of a first DOF in the overlapping DOF region and further based on at least one second pixel value of a second DOF in the overlapping DOF region, depth information of one or more objects located in the overlapping DOF region of the scene.

21. The gated imaging apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the controller is operative to selectively gate at least two pixel subsets of the plurality of pixels according to respective subset gating parameters for imaging by the at least two pixel subsets, respectively, the at least two DOF ranges of the scene.

22. The gated imaging apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the gating parameters of one pixel subset are different from the gating parameters of another pixel subset.

23. The gated imaging apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the controller is operative to gate the at least two pixel subsets such to obtain multiple exposures for at least one of the least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges.

24. The gated imaging apparatus according to any one of claim 21, wherein the controller is operative to read out pixel data that is associated with the at least two pixel subsets to obtain one or more image frames that are descriptive of the at least two DOF ranges and their overlapping DOF range.

25. The gated imaging apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the controller is operative to gate the at least two pixel subsets a plurality of times to obtain at least two different overlapping DOF regions comprising the object;

wherein the processor, by executing instructions stored in the memory, is operative to perform depth mapping of the pixel data descriptive of the object based on values relating to the at least two different overlapping DOF regions.

26-35. -35. (canceled)

36. A computer program embodied in an information carrier comprising a tangible computer-readable storage device to control the operation of and/or for executing the following steps:

generating pulsed light by at least one pulsed light illuminator of a gated imaging system employed by a moving platform for actively illuminating the scene;

gating at least one of a plurality of pixel elements of at least one image sensor of the gated imaging system for converting reflections that are received by the at least one image sensor responsive to illuminating the scene with the pulsed light into pixel values for generating reflection-based images that have at least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges and an overlapping DOF region; and

determining, based on at least one first pixel value of a first DOF in the overlapping DOF region, and further based on at least one second pixel value of a second DOF in the overlapping DOF region, depth information of one or more objects located in the overlapping DOF region of the scene.

38. The computer program of claim 36, controlling the operation and/or executing the step of selectively gating at least two pixel subsets of the plurality of pixels according to respective subset gating parameters for imaging by the at least two pixel subsets, respectively, the at least two DOF ranges of the scene.

39. The computer program of claim 38, wherein gating parameters of one pixel subset are different from the gating parameters of another pixel subset.

40. The computer program of claim 38, controlling the operation and/or executing the step of gating the at least two pixel subsets such to obtain multiple exposures for at least one of the least two depth-of-field (DOF) ranges.

41. The computer program of claim 38, controlling the operation and/or executing the step of reading out pixel data that is associated with the at least two pixel subsets to obtain one or more image frames that are descriptive of the at least two DOF ranges and their overlapping DOF range.

43. The computer program of claim 38, controlling the operation and/or executing the step of:

gating the at least of pixel subsets a plurality of times to obtain at least two different overlapping DOF regions comprising the object; and

depth mapping the pixel data descriptive of the object based on values relating to the at least two different overlapping DOF regions.

44. The computer program of claim 36, controlling the operation and/or executing the step of actively illuminating the scene and gating the plurality of pixels by illumination sources and sensors of a plurality of gated imaging apparatuses respective of a plurality of moving platforms in coordination with each other or randomly, so that depth mapping by the corresponding gated imaging apparatuses can be performed simultaneously without mutual interference between the plurality of gated imaging apparatuses.

37. (canceled)

42. (canceled)

45-51. -51. (canceled)