Recently, ToF cameras have become an integral part of modern flagship smartphones. What is ToF camera?
What is ToF camera?
Remember submarine films? In them, people usually had some kind of sonar equipment used to detect enemy ships. The device sends a sound “ping” into the water and waits for the signal to reflect. Depending on the time it took for the sound wave to return, the specialist tried to determine the location of the enemy submarine.
Just like a sonar, a ToF camera measures the time it takes for light to bounce off an object. The camera then uses the delay data to determine the distance. Thus, the ToF sensor creates a three-dimensional map of the world.
Therefore, ToF cameras are also sometimes referred to as the “depth camera”. A ToF camera (Time of Flight) is a sensor that can emit some kind of light in the infrared spectrum and then record the speed of its reflection from the object. The sensor itself consists of two parts: the first is a diode emitting infrared light, and the second is a special photosensitive matrix.
The camera measures the time after which the light reflected from the object returns to it. Based on calculations accurate to the nanosecond, the device can not only accurately estimate the distance of individual objects from the sensor, but also determine their shape. True, it is very similar to sonar. Only in this case we launch light to the object instead of sound.
Sensors operating on a similar principle are also used in self-driving cars or even space probes built by NASA. Miniaturization efforts and relatively low manufacturing costs mean that this technology may appear in your pocket today. The fact is that ToF sensors are already in many top-end smartphones.