3D camera helps prevent accidents at home

This is one of the potential applications being proposed for a 3D camera developed by engineers in the SOI (integrated optical sensors) research unit of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) technology foundation in Trento, Italy.

A patented prototype of the camera incorporates a light-capturing sensor with a 10-micrometre pixel – currently the smallest in existence in this field. This provides the prototype with the capacity to capture images with the largest quantity of details possible.

While digital cameras currently available on the market provide only a 2D projection of the scene to be shot, the FBK camera also recovers the third dimension. The device illuminates a scene with ultra-short laser light pulses (in the order of a few billionths of a second) that ‘hit’ subjects being shot and then return to the starting point where they are detected by a micro sensor known as a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS).

The CMOS sensor is capable of computing the distance of the various subjects – the third dimension – making it possible, therefore, to approach the stereoscopic vision of humans.