CoDAC can lead to cheap 3D cameras for cellphones
17 Jan
Posted by asarafraz
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Depth-sensing cameras can produce 'depth maps' like this one, in which distances are depicted as shades on a gray-scale spectrum (lighter objects are closer, darker ones farther away). Image: flickr/Dominic |
When Microsoft’s Kinect hit the market, programmers immediately began hacking it. This 11 inches wide device produces a visual map of the scene before it, with information about the distance to individual objects. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new system that does a similar task which could lead to 3D cameras that are small and cheap enough to be fitted into mobile phones.
The MIT group that works on this new device describes it as:
CoDAC is a new time-of-flight based range measurement system for acquiring depth maps of piecewise-planar scenes with high spatial resolution using a single, omnidirectional, time-resolved photodetector and no scanning components. In contrast with the 2D laser scanning used in LIDAR systems and low-resolution 2D sensor arrays used in TOF cameras, CoDAC demonstrates that it is possible to build a non-scanning range acquisition system with high spatial resolution using only a standard, commercially-available, low-cost photodetector and spatial light modulator.
Watch this video that describes more details of CoDAC:
See more details in their page or in MIT News.
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