Article accepted at the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI)

Our article on the Stereo Time-of-Flight with Constructive Interference has been accepted by the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI). TPAMI is the one of the two major Computer Vision journals and has an impact factor of 5.96 (#1 in electrical engineering and artificial intelligence, within the Top 10 in computer science, overall top-ranked IEEE and Computer Society journal).

Stereo Time-of-Flight with Constructive Interference

Victor Castaneda, Diana Mateus and Nassir Navab

Abstract — This paper describes a novel method to acquire depth images using a pair of ToF^? (Time of Flight) cameras. As opposed to approaches that filter, calibrate or do 3D reconstructions posterior to the image acquisition, we combine the measurements of the two cameras within a modified acquisition procedure. The new proposed stereo-ToF acquisition is composed of three stages during which we actively modify the infrared lighting of the scene: first, the two cameras emit an infrared signal one after the other (stages 1 and 2), and then, simultaneously (stage 3). Assuming the scene is static during the three stages, we gather the depth measurements obtained with both cameras and define a cost function to optimize the two depth images. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the performance of the proposed stereo-ToF acquisition is provided both for simulated and real ToF^? cameras. In both cases, the stereo-ToF acquisition produces more accurate depth measurements. Moreover, an extension to the multi-view ToF^? case and a detailed study on the interference specifications of the system are included.