Accuracy Performance of a Time-of-Flight CMOS Range Image Sensor System

This paper analyzes the performance of an indirect time-of-flight (ITOF) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) range image sensor. A number of experiments were performed to measure the actual performance of the system under test and to highlight its strength and weak points, with a focus on which limits are related to the design and which are intrinsic in the operating principle. The evaluated system allows fast and accurate measurements, but pixel-level calibration is needed to achieve high accuracy over the whole image. Simple temporal or spatial filtering allows a significant reduction in the measurement uncertainty.

[1]  R. Lange,et al.  Solid-state time-of-flight range camera , 2001 .

[2]  Caroline Bes,et al.  Displacement measurements using a self-mixing laser diode under moderate feedback , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[3]  Tomaso A. Poggio,et al.  A Trainable System for Object Detection , 2000, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[4]  Bernd Jähne,et al.  Handbook of Computer Vision and Applications: Volume 1: From Scenes to Images , 1999 .

[5]  S. Burak Gokturk,et al.  A Time-Of-Flight Depth Sensor - System Description, Issues and Solutions , 2004, 2004 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop.

[6]  D. Petri,et al.  Metrological Characterisation of a Time of Flight CMOS Range Image Sensor , 2008, 2008 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference.

[7]  Shoji Kawahito,et al.  A QVGA-size CMOS time-of-flight range image sensor with background light charge draining structure , 2006, Electronic Imaging.

[8]  W. Brockherde,et al.  A 4/spl times/64 pixel CMOS image sensor for 3D measurement applications , 2003, ESSCIRC 2004 - 29th European Solid-State Circuits Conference (IEEE Cat. No.03EX705).

[9]  A. Simoni,et al.  A CMOS sensor optimized for laser spot-position detection , 2005, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[10]  A. Simoni,et al.  A 16/spl times/16-pixel range-finding CMOS image sensor , 2004, Proceedings of the 30th European Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[11]  W. Brockherde,et al.  A CMOS photosensor array for 3D imaging using pulsed laser , 2001, 2001 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers. ISSCC (Cat. No.01CH37177).

[12]  P.-A. Besse,et al.  Design and characterization of a CMOS 3-D image sensor based on single photon avalanche diodes , 2005, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[13]  Juha Kostamovaara,et al.  Tracking laser radar for 3-D shape measurements of large industrial objects based on time-of-flight laser rangefinding and position-sensitive detection techniques , 1994 .

[14]  Peter Gulden,et al.  Novel opportunities for optical level gauging and 3D-imaging with the photoelectronic mixing device , 2002, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..