Device for generating depth information, method for generating depth information, and stereo camera

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10033987-B2
Application number	US-201514602281-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 22, 2015
Priority date	Jan 23, 2014
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

A device for generating depth information includes a plurality of light sources, an image capture unit, a control unit, and a processing unit. Each light source of the plurality of light sources emits a corresponding intensity light. The control unit controls the each light source of the plurality of light sources to emit the corresponding intensity light in turn, and controls the image capture unit to capture a plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources. The processing unit generates a plurality of depth information corresponding to the plurality of light sources according to the plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources and a background image after the image capture unit captures the plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources and the background image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for generating depth information, comprising:
a plurality of light sources, wherein each light source of the plurality of light sources emits a corresponding intensity light, and intensities of corresponding intensity lights emitted by the plurality of light sources are different from each other;
an image capture unit;
a control unit coupled to the plurality of light sources and the image capture unit for controlling the each light source of the plurality of light sources to emit the corresponding intensity light in turn, and controlling the image capture unit to capture a plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources and controlling the image capture unit to capture a background image corresponding to all the plurality of light sources being turned off; and
a processing unit coupled to the image capture unit for performing a first subtraction operation of a plurality of subtraction operations to generate a plurality of difference images according to each image of the plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources and the background image, and performing a second subtraction operation of the plurality of subtraction operations to generate a depth information of a plurality of depth information corresponding to the each light source according to two adjacent difference images of the plurality of difference images corresponding to the each light source.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of light sources are infrared light sources.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the each light source of the plurality of light sources has a corresponding wavelength.

4. A method for generating depth information, wherein a device for generating depth information comprises a plurality of light sources, an image capture unit, a control unit, and a processing unit, the method comprising:
the control unit controlling each light source of the plurality of light sources to emit a corresponding intensity light in turn, wherein intensities of corresponding intensity lights emitted by the plurality of light sources are different from each other;
the control unit controlling the image capture unit to capture a plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources and controlling the image capture unit to capture a background image corresponding to all the plurality of light sources being turned off; and
after the image capture unit captures the plurality of images and the background image, the processing unit performing a first subtraction operation of a plurality of subtraction operations to generate a plurality of difference images according to each image of the plurality of images corresponding to the plurality of light sources and the background image, and performing a second subtraction operation of the plurality of subtraction operations to generate a depth information of a plurality of depth information corresponding to the each light source according to two adjacent difference images of the plurality of difference images corresponding to the each light source.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of light sources are infrared light sources.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the each light source of the plurality of light sources has a corresponding wavelength.

Assignees

• Etron Tech Inc
• Eys3D Microelectronics Co

Inventors

• Wu Ben
• Ho Ming-Che
• Yeh Pei-Chun

Classifications

• H04N13/254

  in combination with electromagnetic radiation sources for illuminating objects · CPC title

• H04N13/271 Primary

  wherein the generated image signals comprise depth maps or disparity maps · CPC title

• H04N13/0253

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N13/0271 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic