Depth Fields: Extending Light Field Techniques to Time-of-Flight Imaging

A variety of techniques such as light field, structured il-lumination, and time-of-flight (TOF) are commonly used for depth acquisition in consumer imaging, robotics and many other applications. Unfortunately, each technique suffers from its individual limitations preventing robust depth sens-ing. In this paper, we explore the strengths and weaknesses of combining light field and time-of-flight imaging, particu-larly the feasibility of an on-chip implementation as a single hybrid depth sensor. We refer to this combination as depth field imaging. Depth fields combine light field advantages such as synthetic aperture refocusing with TOF imaging ad-vantages such as high depth resolution and coded signal processing to resolve multipath interference. We show ap-plications including synthesizing virtual apertures for TOF imaging, improved depth mapping through partial and scat-tering occluders, and single frequency TOF phase unwrap-ping. Utilizing space, angle, and temporal coding, depth fields can improve depth sensing in the wild and generate new insights into the dimensions of light’s plenoptic func-tion. 1