Smart Time-Multiplexing of Quads Solves the Multicamera Interference Problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel time-multiplexing method for multiple ToF cameras that prevents interference without reducing frame rate, and provides a way to extract interference-free frames from unsynchronized cameras.

Contribution

The paper presents a smart time-multiplexing approach for multicamera ToF systems that avoids interference and maintains high frame rates, along with a method to extract interference-free frames from unsynchronized cameras.

Findings

Effective multicamera synchronization achieved.

Interference-free frames can be extracted from unsynchronized streams.

Method works with various triggering mechanisms.

Abstract

Time-of-flight (ToF) cameras are becoming increasingly popular for 3D imaging. Their optimal usage has been studied from the several aspects. One of the open research problems is the possibility of a multicamera interference problem when two or more ToF cameras are operating simultaneously. In this work we present an efficient method to synchronize multiple operating ToF cameras. Our method is based on the time-division multiplexing, but unlike traditional time multiplexing, it does not decrease the effective camera frame rate. Additionally, for unsynchronized cameras, we provide a robust method to extract from their corresponding video streams, frames which are not subject to multicamera interference problem. We demonstrate our approach through a series of experiments and with a different level of support available for triggering, ranging from a hardware triggering to purely random software triggering.