Depth measurement using a phase grating

Abstract

Binocular depth-perception systems use binary, phase-antisymmetric gratings to cast point-source responses onto an array of photosensitive pixels. The gratings and arrays can be manufactured to tight tolerances using well characterized and readily available integrated-circuit fabrication techniques, and can thus be made small, cost-effective, and efficient. The gratings produce point-source responses that are large relative to the pitch of the pixels, and that exhibit wide ranges of spatial frequencies and orientations. Such point-source responses make it easy to distinguish the point-source responses from fixed-pattern noise the results from spatial frequencies of structures that form the array.