As an emerging technology, ToF or 3D Flash LIDAR has many advantages over traditional point (single pixel) scanner cameras and stereo cameras, including:
Simple
Compared to stereo vision or triangulation systems, the entire system is very compact: the lighting is only placed next to the lens, while other systems require a certain minimum baseline. Compared with laser scanning systems, no mechanical moving parts are required. A big advantage of a time-of-flight camera is the ability to synthesize a 3D image of the scene with a single lens. Other 3D vision systems require more images and movement.
Efficient
Extracting distance information from the output signal of the ToF sensor is a straightforward process. As a result, this task uses only a small amount of processing power, while for stereo vision, complex related algorithms are implemented, requiring more energy and more processing power. After extracting the distance data, object detection is also a simple process, because the algorithm will not be interfered by object patterns.
Speed
The time-of-flight 3D camera can measure the distance in the entire scene in a single shot. Since the camera can reach 160 frames per second, it is very suitable for use in real-time applications.
Price
Compared with other 3D depth range scanning technologies (such as structured light camera/projector systems or laser rangefinders), ToF sensor is very cheap.
