Time of flight depth system including an illumination source with addressable illumination blocks

US11480684B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC · US

Inventors

• Augusto Ronchini Ximenes · Seattle, US
• Michael Hall · Greensburg, US
• Zhaoming Zhu · Redmond, US
• Shuochen Su · Seattle, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 30, 2020
• Grant date: Oct 25, 2022
• Expiry date: Mar 7, 2041

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B2027/0178
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A direct time of flight depth system includes an addressable illumination source, an active depth sensor, and a controller. The addressable illumination source includes an array of emitters and an optical assembly that is used to generate an array of dots emitted into a local area. Each emitter is independently addressable, allowing selective illumination of different portions of the local area. The addressable illumination source is aligned with the active depth sensor so each dot maps to a corresponding macropixel (e.g., 4×4 array of SPADs) on the active depth sensor. Data from the active depth sensor is readout and used to determine depth information.