A systematic non-uniformity correction method for correlation-based ToF imaging

Abstract

Correlation-based time-of-flight (ToF) imaging enables a diverse range of applications for its high frame rate, high resolution and low cost. However, the non-uniformity of the sensor significantly affects the flat-field accuracy of the ToF imaging system. In this paper, we analyze the sources of the non-uniformity and propose a systematic non-uniformity correction (NUC) method. The method utilizes the amplitude image, which can directly reflect the non-uniformity characteristics of the ToF sensor, to conduct NUC. Based on the established NUC system, the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed NUC method are verified. Compared with the traditional methods, the RMSE was significantly reduced, while the SNR and PSNR were effectively improved. We believe this study provides new insights into the understanding of noise in the correlation-based ToF imaging system, and also provides effective references for the NUC of the three-dimensional measuring instruments.