Single-Photon Lidar for Fast Imaging at Low SBR and Few Photons

In low-light conditions, the single-photon light detection and ranging (Lidar) technique based on time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) is suited for collecting a three-dimensional (3D) profile of the target. We present a rapid 3D reconstruction approach for single-photon Lidar with low signal-to-background ratio (SBR) and few photons based on a combination of short-duration range gate selection, photon accumulation of surrounding pixels, and photon efficiency algorithm in this paper. We achieve the best noise filtering and 3D image reconstruction by choosing the optimal combined order of simple methods. Experiments were carried out to validate the various depth estimation algorithms using simulated data and single-photon avalanche diode ( SPAD) array data under varying SBR. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve high-quality 3D reconstruction with a faster processing speed compared to the existing algorithms. The proposed technology will encourage the use of single-photon Lidar to suit practical needs such as quick and noise-tolerant 3D imaging.