Researchers from MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) created a new lidar-like system that gauges depth when only a single photon is detected from each location.
The new scheme could enable laser rangefinders to infer depth from a hundredth as much light — and to produce images from only one nine-hundredth the light.
In a conventional lidar system, the laser fires pulses of light toward a sequence of discrete positions, which collectively form a grid; each location in the grid corresponds to a pixel in the final image.
The MIT researchers’ system fires repeated bursts of light from each position in the grid only until it detects a single reflected photon; then it moves on to the next position.
Also: Learn about High-Precision Encoders for Laser Communication Terminals (LCTs).
