A 3D time of flight camera for object detection

Abstract

The knowledge of three-dimensional data is essential for many control and navigation applications. Especially in the industrial and automotive environment a fast and reliable acquisition of 3D data has become a main requirement for future developments. Moreover low cost 3D imaging has the potential to open a wide field of additional applications and solutions in markets like consumer electronics, multimedia, digital photography, robotics and medical technologies. This article describes the modular design of a new generation of time-of-flight cameras, the so called PMD cameras. The key component is an array or line sensor which can measure the distance to the target pixelwise in parallel without scanning. Therefore these cameras have the advantages of fast imaging and high lateral resolution combined with the depth information of the captured scene. The sensors consist of smart pixels, called the Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) which enables fast optical sensing and demodulation of incoherent light signals in one component. Each PMD-camera consists of a sensor chip in standard CMOS technology, a modulated optical transmitter, control and processing electronics and software package. Dependent on special demands of the different application and markets mentioned above each PMD camera component has to be adapted to these demands. The paper give some examples for costumer specific solutions and the possibilities of a flexible modular camera design.