Dot projector

Laser dot projector projects many small dots in front of the device, which helps with disparity matching, especially for low-visual-interest surfaces (blank surfaces with little to no texture), such as a wall or floor. The technique that we use is called ASV - conventional Active Stereo Vision - as stereo matching is performed on the device the same way as on OAK-D (passive stereo).

Control dot projector intensity

If you have a Pro-series device you are able to control the dot projector and flood light intensities. Follow the example to find out how.

On the image below there’s a blank wall with no texture. Without the dot projector, (passive) depth perception is poor. With the dot projector set to ~200mA, the (active) depth perception looks much better. If you look closely at the bottom left frame, you can see little dots all around the wall.

AMS1.1

Ams Belago1.1 Dot-Pattern Infrared IlluminatorDatasheet

Number of dots

4700

HFOI* 50%

78 ± 7%

VFOI* 50%

61° ± 7%

VSCEL wavelength

940nm

Operating temperature

10°C to ~60°C

Temperature absolute limits

0°C to ~80°C

FOI = Field of illumination. Also note that in datasheet, HFOI and VFOI are switched, that’s because we mount the Belago1.1 rotated as we want greater horizontal field, to match field of cameras.Regarding operating temperature; some customers use dot projector even at lower ambient temperatures, but first wait a few minutes for device to heat up (by running AI/CV/stereo depth…) so projector gets to above 0°C.

Himax TL10

Himax TL-10Datasheet