At present, the mainstream application technology of 3D sensing is structured light and ToF. The two sensing technologies determine their different application fields in principle. We compare and analyze the application fields applicable to the two technologies in terms of measuring distance, depth accuracy, algorithm complexity, scanning and response speed, various environmental adaptability and hardware cost.
In terms of measuring distance, the structural light needs to project speckle or coding structural patterns. The long distance light intensity attenuates too fast and the scheme is easy to fail. And ToF sensor uses surface light source, good attenuation resistance, suitable for longer measuring distance. The measuring distance of structural light is within 1.2m, and the maximum measuring distance of ToF sensor is 5m to 10m. ToF sensor is superior to structured light in algorithm complexity, scanning response speed, adaptability to low light and strong light, and hardware cost.
Therefore, structured light scheme is suitable for scenarios with high security requirements and low measurement distance, such as face recognition and AOI detection. application of ToF sensor is more extensive, such as 3D modeling, games, navigation, vehicle obstacle avoidance, automatic driving, gesture capture, navigation, AR etc.
