The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Sep. 06, 2016

Filed:

Feb. 15, 2013
Applicant:

Mesa Imaging Ag, Zurich, CH;

Inventor:

Thierry Oggier, Zurich, CH;

Assignee:
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01C 3/08 (2006.01); G01S 17/89 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01S 17/89 (2013.01);
Abstract

A time of flight (TOF) based camera system includes an illumination module that illuminates only portion of the sensor's field of view that translates to a given region of the pixels of the imaging sensor. The acquired data of the pixel region is processed and/or readout, typically. After the exposure time of the first pixel region is completed, a second pixel region is illuminated and the second pixel region is processed. This procedure can be repeated a couple of times up to a few hundred even thousand times until the entire pixel array is readout and possibly read-out a number of times. The full depth image is then reconstructed based on the results from the different pixel region acquisitions. This system can be used to reduce stray light. Compared to state-of-the-art TOF camera, the presented method and device show improvements in background light stability and a reduction in multiple reflections.


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