Passive depth estimation using chromatic aberration and a depth from defocus approach

In this paper, we propose a new method for passive depth estimation based on the combination of a camera with longitudinal chromatic aberration and an original depth from defocus (DFD) algorithm. Indeed a chromatic lens, combined with an RGB sensor, produces three images with spectrally variable in-focus planes, which eases the task of depth extraction with DFD. We first propose an original DFD algorithm dedicated to color images having spectrally varying defocus blurs. Then we describe the design of a prototype chromatic camera so as to evaluate experimentally the effectiveness of the proposed approach for depth estimation. We provide comparisons with results of an active ranging sensor and real indoor/outdoor scene reconstructions.