Video cameras for Computer Vision

I posted here about the Z-Cam by 3DV Systems.  It is a camera that
uses time-of-flight from a set of LED's that emit a pulse.  The
special imaging chip that has a fast gate so that each pixel can have
a depth value.

I imagine that this technology is going to revolutionize navigation
for robots.  The best part is that they want to market it to gamers,
and price it under $100.

For computer vision, it can provide  a method for creating a 3-d map
of the environment. For your specific application, it provides a way
to filter out objects in the background.  I believe this "depth
cropping" is onboard the camera, so it doesn't need computer
processing to do it.

It is supposed to be out this year, but doesn't seem to be for sale
yet to the public.  They do have a SDK for sale (and I imagine the
camera is available to developers as well).

Joe Dunfee

     Very nice.  It's a gated imager, rather than a per-pixel time of
flight counter, so you don't get full Z data in a single frame.
The price is great, though.

                    John Nagle

My understanding is that they *do* get a full Z-map per frame:
the gating is designed so that each sensor pixel accumulates
light for a duration that is proportional to depth. Presumably
they use another imager, or a second non-gated pulse, to account
for differences in scene reflectivity between pixels.

Any clarification about this product is welcome.  If they can
market it for ~ 100 USD, it is going to have a huge impact on
mass-market and homebrew robotics.

AC

     There's plenty of hype on the web, but even though the company's
site says the product is for sale, they don't even offer anything
you can actually buy, not even a developer kit.  No data sheets
or manuals, either.

     The thing should work, but they may not have the manufacturing yet
to hit their claimed price point.

     If they have a gated imager that good, I'm surprised they don't
make a set of binoculars with it.  There's an expensive system
"http://www.laseroptronix.se/gated/gatsys.html"  used for seeing
through fog.

                John Nagle

That's quite a project.  You may want to consider the awesome
RoboRealm vision software.  It's free and it works quite well for
target tracking.  That could save you a ton of work.  I experimented a
little with it.  You can stream the X,Y coordinates of a located
target out of the serial port of the host PC.  I was amazed that
within a couple of hours of downloading the software I could track my
cat across the living room floor.  It helped that he was the largest
black object in the room.

BRW

You can try PTgrey.com
They sell professional quality FireWire cameras with windows and linux
drivers.
I think they cost a few hundred bucks. They may have tracking software
too.
-howy