Sick Ag

Matthias Heinz

Josef Baak

Volker Zierke

Simon Braun

Alexander Emperle

Thomas Dieng

Thorsten Pfister

A 3D time-of-flight camera for detecting three-dimensional image data from a detection zone is provided, the 3D time-of-flight camera comprising an illumination unit for transmitting transmission light that is modulated with a first modulation frequency; an image sensor having a plurality of reception elements for generating a respective reception signal; a plurality of demodulation units for demodulating the reception signals with the first modulation frequency in order to obtain sampled values; and a control and evaluation unit that is configured to control the illumination unit and/or the demodulation units for a number of measurement repetitions, in each case with a different phase shift between the first modulation frequency for the transmission light and the first modulation frequency for the demodulation, and that is configured to determine a distance value from the sampled values obtained per light reception element by the measurement repetitions. In this respect, the control and evaluation unit is furthermore configured to change the number of measurement repetitions.

3D time-of-flight camera and method of detecting three-dimensional image data

In order to enable high image acquisition rate with simultaneous low energy consumption of a cameraa camera (), in particular a 3D time-of-flight camera, is provided, comprising an illumination unit () which emits light pulses during an illumination phase (Bp), an image sensor () which generates images from the light pulses reflected by an object, a switching controller () which controls current to the illumination unit (), the switching controller () being operable in a continuous and a discontinuous mode (CCM; DCM), and a control unit () which is designed to activate and deactivate the continuous mode (CCM) of the switching controller () as a function of the illumination phase (Bp) of the illumination unit ().

3D time of flight camera

A 3D camera () in accordance with the stereoscopic principle for detecting depth maps () of a monitored zone) is set forth which has at least two camera modules (-) each having an image sensor (-) in mutually offset perspectives for taking two-dimensional starting images () as well as a stereoscopic unit () which is configured for the application of a stereoscopic algorithm for generating a depth map () in that mutually associated part regions are recognized in two two-dimensional images taken within a disparity zone from offset perspectives and their distance is calculated with reference to the disparity. In this respect, a pixel binning unit () is provided to generate a two-dimensional intermediate image () of lower resolution by binning a respective plurality of pixels from a two-dimensional image () and a fusion unit () is provided which fuses at least two depth maps () to form a common depth map (), with at least one of the depth maps () being generated from intermediate images ().

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Waldkirch, Germany

Matthias Heinz