Re:Spy camera detection using smartphone time-of-flight sensors
by tootie on Thursday November 18, 2021 @02:47PM
(#29269559)
So I had no idea phones have ToF sensors these days. Do most phones have them or only the high-priced flagships? What are the actual intended uses for them?
Re:Spy camera detection using smartphone time-of-flight sensors
by frizensami on Thursday November 18, 2021 @02:59PM
(#29269693)
High priced flagships have them but there are also a few midrange phones like the Huawei P30 Pro that have them too. The trend seems pretty positive towards more ToF sensors in phones, especially because Apple has had them for two iPhone Pros in a row now.
They're basically for augmented reality applications because they sense depth. Placing objects at the right size and scale in the augmented view is much easier and more accurate with the ToF sensors, for instance.
Re:Spy camera detection using smartphone time-of-flight sensors
by genewitch on Thursday November 18, 2021 @08:24PM
(#29272738)
Any phone that has sub 200ms focus times has to have some sort of TOF sensor, right? The Asus Zenfone 2/3 laser, the Huawei monochrome sensor on the honor series, the portrait and/or macro sensors on the Xiaomi mi note 10, whatever the original Zenfone had, and so on.
Not all of them are lasers, which might be important.
Re:Spy camera detection using smartphone time-of-flight sensors
by archon810 on Friday November 19, 2021 @01:58AM
(#29274531)
Do you know if the Pixel 6 series supports ToF?
Re:Spy camera detection using smartphone time-of-flight sensors
by frizensami on Friday November 19, 2021 @07:38AM
(#29276537)
I don't think so. There's "laser-assisted autofocus" which might be slang for an actual ToF sensor, but sometimes that's just a single laser pulse (I.e., no 2D image that we need).
While this work operates on ToF sensors that are already present in smartphones (e.g., Samsung S20+/Ultra), a Microsoft/Azure Kinect should also be a valid option because it has a depth camera as well. It has a higher resolution and bit-depth as well.
We initially intended to compare against the Kinect, but it doesn't fit the use case (something that you can have on you at all times). However, it could be a cheap choice for a different kind of deployment (automated hidden camera detection with robots, perhaps?)