Page 6 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

6 EE|Times EUROPE

COVER STORY

State-of-the-Art Photography and

Immersive AR/MR Experiences:

REAL3 3D ToF Imager with
TM

Longest Range in the Market

BY ELIANA BRZOZOWSKI and STEFAN VOGEL, Infineon Technologies, and
JOCHEN PENNE, pmdtechnologies

Today’s smartphones have to offer a lot to appeal to users, especially to meet rising
demand for high-quality photography effects and — more recently — a wide range of
augmented/mixed-reality (AR/MR) functions. All of these are possible with Infineon’s

new 3D imager based on time-of-flight pixel technology from pmdtechnologies.

hen buying a new smartphone, consumers today attach growing importance to the devices’ cameras. On
the one hand, they want to take high-quality photos; on the other, they want comprehensive augmented-
reality functionality to support emerging and advanced applications in the AR/MR space such as AR/MR
Wgames. The smartphone’s camera has thus become a decisive criterion in the purchase process and must
be able to link reality with the digital world, whether in commercial, educational, or business/industrial applications. 3D
cameras using 3D time-of-flight (ToF) imagers deliver precisely this functionality.

In recent years, the development of 3D exceed 500 million units per year worldwide onto the physical environment — supple-
cameras in mobiles has been focused par- within the next five years (Figure 1). 1 menting the real world with digital details
ticularly on the front side, as this camera is At present, however, the use of and resulting in a limited or non-immersive
crucial for various security and high- augmented/mixed-reality applications is still user experience. The two key elements in
convenience applications. For example, the very limited. Augmented-reality applications this case are just a camera phone and an AR
front camera is used for advanced security that became popularized some years ago app with appropriate software to calculate
functions such as biometric face authenti- in gaming and 3D design, enabling users to and project the image onto the scene on the
cation for screen and app unlock and secure place a character or object somewhere in phone’s screen.
payment. Moreover, the camera is used the scene, are usually nothing more than True MR, however, merges the real world
for virtual-reality avatars for social media overlapping of computer-generated visuals with digital elements, making them interact
interaction and photography beautification
with special depth effects. These and other
features have boosted the deployment of the
3D camera on the front side of the phone,
and this trend has now become established
on the market.
At the same time, professional-quality
computational photography and immer-
sive AR/MR experiences are the next game
changers sparking the development of
smartphones and providing substantial
opportunities for the further adoption of 3D
image-sensing cameras on the rear side of
the phone. This will lead to countless new
applications of this kind and thus will drive
further developments.
Strategy Analytics predicts that the market
for ToF rear cameras in smartphones will Figure 1: Market forecast for rear 3D ToF cameras in smartphones 1

DECEMBER 2020 | www.eetimes.eu