Methods for Linear Radial Motion Estimation in Time-of-Flight Range Imaging

Motion artefacts in time-of-flight range imaging are treated as a feature to measure. Methods for measuring linear radial velocity from range imaging cameras are developed and tested. With the measurement of velocity, the range to the position of the target object at the start of the data acquisition period is computed, effectively correcting the motion error. A new phase based pseudo-quadrature method designed for low speed measurement measures radial velocity up to ±1.8 m/s with RMSE 0.045 m/s and standard deviation of 0.09—0.33 m/s, and new high-speed Doppler extraction method measures radial velocity up to ±40 m/s with standard deviation better than 1 m/s and RMSE of 3.5 m/s.