Time-of-flight depth image enhancement using variable integration time

Sun Kwon Kim; Ouk Choi; Byongmin Kang; James Dokyoon Kim; Chang-Yeong Kim

doi:10.1117/12.2005429

12 March 2013 Time-of-flight depth image enhancement using variable integration time

Sun Kwon Kim, Ouk Choi, Byongmin Kang, James Dokyoon Kim, Chang-Yeong Kim

Proceedings Volume 8650, Three-Dimensional Image Processing (3DIP) and Applications 2013; 865007 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2005429
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2013, Burlingame, California, United States

Abstract

Time-of-Flight (ToF) cameras are used for a variety of applications because it delivers depth information at a high frame rate. These cameras, however, suffer from challenging problems such as noise and motion artifacts. To increase signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the camera should calculate a distance based on a large amount of infra-red light, which needs to be integrated over a long time. On the other hand, the integration time should be short enough to suppress motion artifacts. We propose a ToF depth imaging method to combine advantages of short and long integration times exploiting an imaging fusion scheme proposed for color imaging. To calibrate depth differences due to the change of integration times, a depth transfer function is estimated by analyzing the joint histogram of depths in the two images of different integration times. The depth images are then transformed into wavelet domains and fused into a depth image with suppressed noise and low motion artifacts. To evaluate the proposed method, we captured a moving bar of a metronome with different integration times. The experiment shows the proposed method could effectively remove the motion artifacts while preserving high SNR comparable to the depth images acquired during long integration time.

Citation Download Citation

Sun Kwon Kim, Ouk Choi, Byongmin Kang, James Dokyoon Kim, and Chang-Yeong Kim "Time-of-flight depth image enhancement using variable integration time", Proc. SPIE 8650, Three-Dimensional Image Processing (3DIP) and Applications 2013, 865007 (12 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2005429

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