Theoretical and experimental error analysis of continuous-wave time-of-flight range cameras

We offer a formal investigation of the measurement principle of time-of-flight 3-D cameras using correlation of amplitude-modulated continuous-wave signals. These sensors can provide both depth maps and IR intensity pictures simultaneously and in real time. We examine the theory of the data acquisition in detail. The variance of the range measurements is derived in a concise way and we show that the computed range follows an offset normal distribution. The impact of quantization of that distribution is discussed. All theoretically investigated errors like the behavior of the variance, depth bias, saturation and quantization effects are supported by experimental results.