Abstract: In illustrative implementations, a time-of-flight camera robustly measures scene depths, despite multipath interference. The camera emits amplitude modulated light. An FPGA sends at least two electrical signals, the first being to control modulation of radiant power of a light source and the second being a reference signal to control modulation of pixel gain in a light sensor. These signals are identical, except for time delays. These signals comprise binary codes that are m-sequences or other broadband codes. The correlation waveform is not sinusoidal. During measurements, only one fundamental modulation frequency is used. One or more computer processors solve a linear system by deconvolution, in order to recover an environmental function. Sparse deconvolution is used if the scene has only a few objects at a finite depth. Another algorithm, such as Wiener deconvolution, is used is the scene has global illumination or a scattering media.

Abstract: In illustrative implementations, a time-of-flight camera robustly measures scene depths, despite multipath interference. The camera emits amplitude modulated light. An FPGA sends at least two electrical signals, the first being to control modulation of radiant power of a light source and the second being a reference signal to control modulation of pixel gain in a light sensor. These signals are identical, except for time delays. These signals comprise binary codes that are m-sequences or other broadband codes. The correlation waveform is not sinusoidal. During measurements, only one fundamental modulation frequency is used. One or more computer processors solve a linear system by deconvolution, in order to recover an environmental function. Sparse deconvolution is used if the scene has only a few objects at a finite depth. Another algorithm, such as Wiener deconvolution, is used is the scene has global illumination or a scattering media.

Abstract: The invention relates to a solid-state range sensing system. As with previous solid-state range sensing systems, an energy source is activated and deactivated in a cyclic pattern with a selected source frequency. A receiver is adapted to sense the reflection of emitted energy from the target. The receiver includes a shielding system to block the sensing of the reflected energy from the target in a cyclic pattern with a selected receiver frequency. Unlike the prior art, the frequency of the source and receiver are offset by a small frequency. The resulting output signal of the receiver is a further cyclic pattern beat signal of frequency equal to the difference between the source activation and receiver shielding modulation frequencies. The best signal is effectively a down-converted version of the source modulation frequency and, unlike the prior art, is compared with a reference beat signal whereby the phase difference between the two beat signals is used to determine a range value.