Patent attributes
A depth camera assembly for determining depth information for objects in a local area comprises a light generator, a camera and a controller. The light generator illuminates the local area with structured light in accordance with emission instructions from the controller. The light generator includes an illumination source, an acousto-optic deflector (AOD), and a liquid crystal device (LCD) with liquid crystal gratings (LCGs). The AOD functions as a dynamic diffraction grating that diffracts optical beams emitted from the illumination source to form diffracted scanning beams, based on emission instructions from the controller. Each LCG in the LCD is configured to further diffract light from the AOD to generate the structured light projected into the local area. The camera captures images of portions of the structured light reflected from objects in the local area. The controller determines depth information for the objects based on the captured images.
