DISTANCE ESTIMATING DEVICE, DISTANCE ESTIMATING METHOD, PROGRAM, INTEGRATED CIRCUIT, AND CAMERA

摘要

Conventionally, there has been a danger that CCD saturation may occur because of the influence of the shot noise and the environment light if a higher resolution of a distance image showing the distance to an object present in an object space and a higher frame rate are achieved when the distance image is estimated by the TOF method, and the distance accuracy may degrade.  An emission frequency selecting unit (7) receives light (S2) reflected from the object when a light source does not emit light and selects illumination light (S1) having an emission frequency insusceptible to the environment light according to the frequency analysis of the reflected light (S2).  An image creating unit (6) selects a light source emitting the illumination light having the optimum emission frequency from among prepared light sources (9A to 9N), receives reflected light of the illumination light from the selected light source, and creates the distance image showing the distance to the object.  The environment light can be mitigated during light reception, and the noise influence on the distance accuracy can be mitigated when a light-receiving element unit (2) exhibiting higher resolution is used.