Modulation Method Including Noise Model for Minimizing the Wiggling Error of TOF Cameras

Abstract

Registered depth and intensity data at a high frame rate, a compact design, low weight, and a reduced power consumption have motivated the increasing usage of lock-in time-of-flight (TOF) cameras in research areas such as computer graphics, machine vision, and robotics. The state-of-the-art practice is to use continuous wave modulation with square waves for TOF cameras. Square waves can be easily generated digitally with a high accuracy and stability using programmable logic devices. In this paper, a modulation method based on sine waves is proposed, which significantly reduces the depth distortion offset (wiggling effect) of lock-in TOF cameras. Furthermore, a model for the noise distribution in the depth image is derived. This model can predict the performance of the proposed modulation method for each pixel in real time.Index Terms-Optical distance measurement component, phase measurement, phase shift algorithm, photonic mixer devices (PMDs), time-of-flight (TOF).

Performance Analysis of the PMD Camboard Picoflexx Time-of-Flight Camera for Markerless Motion Capture Applications

“…The Picoflexx and the Microsoft Kinect V2 devices are both lock-in ToF cameras, where a near-infrared periodic wave is emitted by the system and reflected back to the sensor. The ToF measurement is carried out using continuous-wave modulation, based on phase shifting principle [35].…”

Single frame correction of motion artifacts in PMD-based time of flight cameras

“…Based on Mufti et al [18] and the recent work of Hussmann et al [19], we can assume that, if enough photons are collected, O cal follows a Gaussian distribution NÔ cal ; σ O , that we estimate from the samples obtained with Eq. (12).…”

Recent Advances in 3D Data Acquisition and Processing by Time-of-Flight Camera

“…One is comparing depth measurements with a reference ground truth [81], [82], and the other is estimating the error from optimization of multiple measurements [83]. Hussmann et al [84] presented a modulation method based on sine waves for minimizing the wiggling error. A noise distribution model is also derived which predicts the performance of the modulation method in real time for depth images.…”