Depth extraction using depth of field imaging with tilted retroreflective structure

We propose the method of depth extraction using the tilted retroreflective structure which consists of a beam splitter and micro corner cube array. A camera takes the reconstructed object image by retroreflector with narrow depth of field. The image contains the focused object image and focused area within tilted retroreflector. The area indicates the position of the object image. Therefore, we can estimate the object position with simple calculation such as the lens equation. The proposed method is useful for real-time depth extraction without active light source. The experiment is performed to compare with the theoretical calculations, of which results confirm the feasibility of the proposed method.