Three-dimensional range-gated imaging at infrared wavelengths with super-resolution depth mapping

Abstract

Range-gated viewing is a prominent technique for night vision, remote sensing and vision trough obstacles (fog, smoke, camouflage netting ). Furthermore, range-gated images reflect not only the scene reflectance but also contain depth information. The whole depth information can be calculated from a minimum number of two range-gated images via the super-resolution depth mapping technique. For the first time, this method is applied to range-gated viewing at infrared wavelengths. An EBCMOS camera and a solid sate laser illumination in the 1.5 μm wavelength scale were used to depth-map a scene with minimal laser activity of 9 ns per image.