Ayman Morsy received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Zewail University in 2018, where he conducted research in Photonics. In 2020, he received his master’s degree in Photonics Engineering with great distinction from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Recently, he has been working on developing and validating a new pixel array for direct time-of-flight imaging. His work revolves around designing, modeling, and characterizing innovative pixel designs.
Depth perception is crucial for numerous daily activities. Whether it’s driving, playing sports, or even something as simple as pouring a glass of water, accurately judging distances helps us perform these tasks effectively and safely. Animals can create depth perception via Binocular Vision. The brain is estimating the distance between different objects from the two images captured by the eyes. This was the primary method of depth perception until the development of the LASER.
LASER development enabled us to create accurate distance detection by measuring the time taken by the light to reflect on objects back to the sensor. This technology is called Time-of-flight (ToF). ToF emerged as a pivotal technology in machine vision and sensing, expanding into multiple applications such as autonomous driving and smartphones.
However, the environment often contains other light sources of the same wavelength, such as sunlight, LED light, and lamp light, collectively referred to as ambient light. Although various technologies have been developed to detect the time of flight and suppress ambient light, it is a challenge to develop a pixel array that consumes low power, and is small for a high resolution 3D image.
My research is to develop a new pixel design that can operate under high ambient light conditions, and small for a high resolution 3D image. The research includes simulating the pixel operation, designing the pixel array, developing the methodology and the platform for characterization, and develop the analytical model for the pixel operation.
The new approach in this pixel is innovative, and can inspire new pixel designs for better imaging and 3D sensing.