The Technology
Today, radar or stereoscopic systems are used when distance estimation is required. Radar systems require expensive equipment. Methods that are based on triangulation require 2 cameras. As the object distance increases, the distance between the cameras has to increase. In both cases there are at least 2 subsystems to be used (2 cameras or a receiver and transmitter), and camera-alignment can be non-trivial. Using point spread function – PSF in macroscopic scale, in a similar way it is used for microscopic scale, allows fast and accurate spatial resolution measurements by passively shaping wavefront of light, accompanied by algorithmic distance-decoding. When measuring distance at macroscopic scale, the measured objects are not points of light. Additionally, for improved performance, a standard-imaging reference channel with information on the object structure can be added.
Advantages
- High accuracy: Distance measurement of objects as far as 3km at ±30m
- Small foot print
- Low cost
- Single system (instead of at least 2 subsystems)
- Can be used in low visibility conditions, e.g. dust which can overwhelm active systems such as LIDAR.
Applications and Opportunities
- Fast and accurate distance measurements of light sources (head lights, landing strip lights, rockets and more)
Business Development Contacts