Patent ID: 11943424
Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. An imaging system configured to use time-of-flight imaging and stereo imaging, the imaging system comprising:
a light emitting component configured to emit first light to illuminate a scene;
a light detecting component that includes:
an array of time-of-flight pixels, wherein:
each time-of-flight pixel is configured to detect second light that is reflected from the first light and determine (i) phase shift data based on a phase shift between the first light and the second light and (ii) intensity data based on an amplitude of the second light; and
each time-of-flight pixel includes a lone photo-sensing diode and at least one of (i) two transfer gates or (ii) two photo gates; and

a plurality of micro-lenses, wherein each micro-lens is shared by at least two time-of-flight pixels in the array; and

a controller configured to:
determine disparity data using the intensity data of each of the at least two time-of-flight pixels shared by an individual micro-lens; and
determine a distance between an object in the scene based in part on at least one of the phase shift data determined for each time-of-flight pixel in the array or the disparity data determined in association with the individual micro-lens of the plurality of micro-lenses.