Abstract
3D cameras have moved from being a novelty sensor modality, when the first imaging 3D cameras appeared decades ago to being a ubiquitous imaging modality found in everything from cellphones to robots. They have become an enabling technology in applications ranging from human-computer interaction and virtual reality to automation, manufacturing, and autonomous operations.
The topic of this thesis is methodologies for enabling 3D imaging technology in challenging environments – space and subsea.
Subsea 3D imaging requires imaging through scattering media, causing any emitted signals to be attenuated, blurred out and confounded, and any received camera images to be blurred.
Space poses unique constraints on the hardware, such as avoiding moving parts and ensuring radiation tolerance, placing strict limitations on the choice of hardware and algorithms.
To obtain good 3D data also in challenging environments, careful design and new knowledge is necessary for illumination, sensors, encoding strategies and decoding algorithms. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap through new methodologies for three different 3D methodologies in challenging environments: Direct time-of-flight (range gating), structured light and assisted stereo.
The topic of this thesis is methodologies for enabling 3D imaging technology in challenging environments – space and subsea.
Subsea 3D imaging requires imaging through scattering media, causing any emitted signals to be attenuated, blurred out and confounded, and any received camera images to be blurred.
Space poses unique constraints on the hardware, such as avoiding moving parts and ensuring radiation tolerance, placing strict limitations on the choice of hardware and algorithms.
To obtain good 3D data also in challenging environments, careful design and new knowledge is necessary for illumination, sensors, encoding strategies and decoding algorithms. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap through new methodologies for three different 3D methodologies in challenging environments: Direct time-of-flight (range gating), structured light and assisted stereo.