Passive depth estimation using chromatic aberration

and a depth from defocus approach

Pauline Trouvé,1,* Frédéric Champagnat,1 Guy Le Besnerais,1 Jacques Sabater,2

Thierry Avignon,2 and Jérôme Idier3
1
ONERA-The French Aerospace Lab, F-91761 Palaiseau, France
2
Institut d’Optique Graduate School, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, RD128 91127 Palaiseau, France
3
LUNAM Université, IRCCyN (UMR CNRS 6597) BP 92101, 1 rue de la Noë, 44321 Nantes Cedex 3, France
*Corresponding author: pauline.trouve@onera.fr

Received 19 June 2013; revised 30 August 2013; accepted 3 September 2013;

posted 10 September 2013 (Doc. ID 192491); published 9 October 2013

In this paper, we propose a new method for passive depth estimation based on the combination
of a camera with longitudinal chromatic aberration and an original depth from defocus (DFD)
algorithm. Indeed a chromatic lens, combined with an RGB sensor, produces three images with
spectrally variable in-focus planes, which eases the task of depth extraction with DFD. We first
propose an original DFD algorithm dedicated to color images having spectrally varying defocus
blurs. Then we describe the design of a prototype chromatic camera so as to evaluate experimentally
the effectiveness of the proposed approach for depth estimation. We provide comparisons with results
of an active ranging sensor and real indoor/outdoor scene reconstructions. © 2013 Optical Society of
America
OCIS codes: (110.0110) Imaging systems; (110.1758) Computational imaging; (100.0100) Image
processing; (100.3190) Inverse problems.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.52.007152

1. Introduction We first describe an original chromatic depth from

Imaging devices with depth estimation ability, also
referred to as RGB-D cameras, have a large field
of applications, including robot guidance for civilian
and military applications, man–machine interface
for game consoles or smartphones, and 3D recording.
These systems are usually based either on stereos-
copy, using two cameras with different viewpoints,
or on infrared (IR) active ranging systems, using
laser pulses as in LIDAR scanners and time-of-flight
(TOF) cameras, or projected light patterns such as
the Kinect, developed by PrimeSense. Here we focus
on a passive depth estimation method using a single
“chromatic camera,” i.e., a camera with a lens having
an accentuated longitudinal chromatic aberration.
1559-128X/13/297152-13$15.00/0
© 2013 Optical Society of America
defocus (DFD) algorithm and show its efficiency on
simulated data. Then we present the design and
the realization of a real prototype of chromatic cam-
era and combine it with our algorithm so as to pro-
duce estimated depth maps. We evaluate the depth
estimation performance on real textured scenes
and demonstrate an accuracy better than 10 cm in
the range of 1–3 m for a camera with focal length
of 25 mm and an f-number of 4.
A. Depth from Defocus
DFD is a passive depth estimation method based
on the relation between defocus blur and depth [1].
Indeed, as illustrated in Fig. 1, if a point source is
placed out of the in-focus plane of an imaging system,
its image, which corresponds to the point spread
function (PSF), has a size given by the geometrical
relation

7152 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 52, No. 29 / 10 October 2013

 Fig. 1. Illustration of the DFD principle.




1 1 1



ε
Ds
− −

; (1)
f d s
where f is the focal length, D is the lens diameter,
and d and s are, respectively, the distance of the
point source and the sensor with respect to the lens.
Knowing f and s, the depth d can be inferred from a
local estimation of the PSF size, or in other words, of
the local amount of blur.
Compared to the traditional stereoscopic ranging
system, a DFD approach requires only a single cam-
era, and thus leads to a more compact and simple
experimental setting. Moreover, compared to a
recent single lens stereoscopic approach such as in
[2], where the aperture is divided within three
RGB color filters to create a parallax effect between
the RGB channels, it does not reduce the signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR) with an aperture division. Finally,
compared to a light-field camera [3], DFD requires a
simpler optical design and has no issue of angular
resolution versus spatial resolution. Besides, one
advantage of a 3D camera with DFD compared to
active ranging systems is that it can be used in out-
door as well as in indoor situations. Indeed, an active
ranging system, such as the Kinect or TOF camera,
projects an IR signal that can be disturbed by the IR
illumination of the sun.
On the other hand, DFD has two fundamental
drawbacks illustrated in Fig. 2. First, as shown in
Fig. 2(a), there is a depth ambiguity on both sides
of the in-focus plane because two different depths
lead to the same PSF size. In addition, Fig. 2(b) illus-
trates that near the in-focus plane region, no blur
variation can be observed, due to a PSF size below
one pixel. That region corresponds to the depth of
field (DoF) and can be considered as a dead zone
for depth estimation by DFD.
Like all passive depth estimation techniques, DFD
requires the scene to be sufficiently textured. How-
ever, this scene is generally unknown. A first family
of DFD techniques then uses several images of the
same scene to estimate the relative local blur. In
[1,4–6] the images are obtained with different lens
settings, an approach that requires the scene to be
static between the successive acquisitions. To avoid
this constraint, a first solution is to separate the
input beam. For example, a mirror beam splitter is
used in [7]. In [8] a programmable aperture involving
an LCoS is used to acquire two images with different
aperture shapes at a high rate. In [9] a system is
Fig. 2. Theoretical blur variation ϵ given by Eq. (1) with respect to
depth, for a conventional imaging system with a focal length of
25 mm, an f-number of 3, and a sensor pixel size of 5 μm, and with
the in-focus plane put at 2 m. (a) Illustration of depth estimation
ambiguity. (b) Illustration of the dead zone in the DoF region.
proposed that uses a spatial light modulator to
produce two images successively, the first one with
a constant blur from which the scene is estimated,
and the second one with a depth-dependent defocus
blur from which depth is estimated. However, all the
latter solutions imply sophisticated optical systems,
which increases the size of the camera, or the design
and manufacturing difficulty.
Another family of DFD techniques uses a single
image. Acquisition is then easier, but the processing
is more difficult due to the ambiguity between
scene and blur. Various scene models have been used
[10–15], and some of them are based on a supervised
learning step [12,13]. Note that an important topic in
single image DFD is the use of a coded aperture
whose shape has an influence on depth estimation
accuracy and can thus be optimized [11–13]. How-
ever, in most coded aperture approaches developed
in the literature [11–13], depth ambiguity remains,
because there is still a unique in-focus plane. Note
that a nonsymmetric aperture could avoid this ambi-
guity, but they are not considered as the most accu-
rate [12]. Besides, due to the DoF of the lens, there is
still a dead zone near the in-focus plane. Another
interesting approach proposed in [16] consists of us-
ing a color circular spectral filter inside the aperture
in order to capture simultaneously three RGB
images with different aperture radii: one for the
green channel and another for the two red and blue
channels. As shown in Fig. 3(a), each depth is then
characterized by two blur radii, which increases
the accuracy of depth estimation [16]. However, once
again, this approach is subject to ambiguity and a
dead zone around the single in-focus plane.
To summarize, there is still a need for a single
acquisition DFD system that could provide depth
estimation with good accuracy over a large range
10 October 2013 / Vol. 52, No. 29 / APPLIED OPTICS 7153

Fig. 3. Example of theoretical blur variation ε given by Eq. (1),
with respect to depth for RGB channels: (a) in the case of the chro-
matic aperture of [16], and (b) in the case of a chromatic lens. In
(a) the focal length is 25 mm, and the f-number of the green chan-
nel is 4.5, while it is 3 for the red and blue channels. For the
chromatic lens (b), the green channel focal length is 25 mm,
and the RGB channels are respectively focused at 1.5, 2, and
3 m, with an f-number of 3. In both cases the sensor pixel size
is 5 μm.
without dead zone or ambiguity. In this paper we
describe such a system based on the use of a lens with
longitudinal chromatic aberration, and an original
chromatic DFD algorithm.
B. Depth from Defocus with a Lens with Chromatic
Aberration
Longitudinal chromatic aberration leads to spec-
trally varying in-focus planes of the lens. Thus a
chromatic lens combined with a color sensor produ-
ces, in a single snapshot, three images with varying
defocus blur. The benefit that can be gained from this
kind of system can be seen in Fig. 3(b), which shows
the variation of the PSF size for the three RGB chan-
nels of a chromatic imaging system. First, for each
depth there is a unique triplet of PSFs. Therefore
we avoid the depth ambiguity that exists in single
in-focus plane DFD. In addition, each channel has
a different in-focus plane, so the dead zone of a chan-
nel can be compensated by using blur variation in the
other two channels. Hence with such a system depth
estimation can potentially have good and homo-
geneous accuracy over a large range. Finally, as chro-
matic aberration is often corrected at the expense of
additional lenses such as diffractive lenses, removing
the achromatic constraint makes the optical design
simpler, as there are fewer elements to optimize,
and can lead to a more compact system.
C. Related Works
Depth estimation from chromatic aberration has
already been proposed by Garcia et al. in [17], but
their algorithm for local blur identification is
restricted to step edges; hence they do not obtain
depth images and provide no experimental evalu-
ation of the depth estimation performance.
7154 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 52, No. 29 / 10 October 2013
On the other hand, chromatic aberration has
been proposed for DoF extension, for grayscale
scenes in [18,19] and for color scenes in [20–22]. In
[18,21,22] a relative sharpness measure is used to
locally identify the sharpest channel and to add
the higher frequencies of the sharpest channel onto
the blurred channels, a technique that is referred to
as “high frequency transfer.” The relative sharpness
measure can lead to a classification of the scene into
three regions: near, medium range, and far. However,
none of these references propose a solution for depth
imaging nor study the performance of depth estima-
tion. Note that chromatic aberration is also exploited
in microscopy to estimate a 3D map of the surface of
the observed object. For example, in [23], a chromatic
lens and a RGB sensor are used for phase estimation
with the transport of intensity equation. Another
example is the use of chromatic aberration in spec-
tral confocal microscopy [24].
Regarding algorithm issues, let us first note that
classical multi-image DFD techniques [1,4–6] cannot
be used for DFD with a chromatic lens because they
do not account for the partial correlation between the
color channels: this point is detailed in Section 2. In
[16] the proposed DFD algorithm is dedicated to the
processing of color images having spectrally varying
defocus blur. However, the processing in [16] relies on
the assumption that the same channel always has
the lowest blur level, whatever the depth. Such an
approach cannot be applied to the case of DFD with
a chromatic lens, because the channel having
the lowest blur level varies with depth, as shown
in Fig. 3(b).
D. Contributions and Paper Organization
Our first contribution is an original depth estimation
algorithm dedicated to chromatic systems presented
in Section 2. Section 3 presents validations of the pro-
posed algorithm carried out on simulated images
from a set of natural scenes. Our second contribution
is the design and the realization of a chromatic lens,
from which a prototype of RGB-D camera has been
built. Using this prototype and the proposed chro-
matic DFD algorithm, we present an experimental
evaluation of depth estimation accuracy in Section 4.
(Some of the depth estimation results were presented
in [25].) Depth maps obtained on real 3D scenes are
shown and compared to the results of an active rang-
ing system. Discussion and concluding remarks are
given in Sections 5 and 6.
2. DFD Algorithm Dedicated to Chromatic Camera
A. Algorithm Overview
DFD can be related to blind deconvolution as both
the scene and the PSF are unknown. Moreover, as
depth varies in the image, one has to deal with spa-
tially varying blur, which means that identification
has to be done locally with a very limited number
of data. Such a severely underdetermined problem
requires additional assumptions on the scene and
on the PSF. In [14] we have presented an unsuper- barcode and QR-code reading [19], but wider appli-
vised single image DFD method based on a very cability requires the development of a truly RGB
simple one-parameter Gaussian prior distribution scene prior that models the partial correlation
of the scene and that assumes that the PSF belongs between the RGB channels. The related criterion,
to some finite set of known candidate PSFs. Each which leads to the color chromatic DFD (CC-DFD)
candidate PSF accounts for the defocus associated algorithm, is derived in Section 2.D.
to a particular depth dk , according to a preliminary
step of calibration or simulation of the imaging B. Observation Model
system at hand. The relation between the scene and the recorded
The flowchart of this algorithm is presented in image is usually modeled as a convolution with
Fig. 4. The image is decomposed in patches where the PSF. In the general case, defocus blur varies
depth is assumed constant. For each patch the prob- spatially in the image and this model is only valid
lem reduces to the optimization of a cost function on image patches, where the PSF is supposed to
over two parameters: be constant. In the case of a lens having spectrally
varying defocus blur combined with a color sensor,
dˆk ; α̂
arg min GLdk ; α: (2) each RGB channel has a different PSF. Using the
k;α matrix formalism on image and scene patches, this
case can be modeled as
The first one is a regularization parameter α that
accounts for the local SNR, and the second is the 2 3 2 32 3
yR H R d 0 0 xR
depth dk of the patch. The cost function GL is a 6 7 6 76 7
generalized likelihood (GL) obtained by marginal- Y
4 yG 5
4 0 H G d 0 54 xG 5  N
izing out the (unknown) scene. Note that, as shown yB 0 0 H B d xB
in the flowchart, homogeneous patches are rejected
because they are insensitive to depth.
H C X  N; (3)
We adopt the same general approach and flow-
chart for the case of the chromatic camera, but where yR ; yG ; yB  and xR ; xG ; xB  represent the
derive a new GL cost function that requires two non- concatenation of the pixels of three RGB scenes
trivial modifications with respect to [14]. First, a and image patches, respectively. N stands for the
depth value is now related to a triplet of PSFs noise that affects the three channels. Each H c d
(one per RGB channel) instead of a unique one is a convolution matrix that depends on the PSF of
in the single image DFD case of [14]. Second, a the channel c and on the depth d. As we consider
scene prior distribution has to be specified for the small patches, care has to be taken concerning
three channels, accounting for interchannel RGB boundary hypotheses: the usual periodic boundary
correlations. assumption is not suited here. In the following, we
In this section we introduce these modifications use “valid” convolutions in which the support of xc
incrementally. We first consider, in Section 2.C, the is enlarged with respect to the one of yc according
case of color images affected by a spectrally varying to the PSF support [26, Section 4.3.2]. Thus, if N
blur, but assuming a total correlation between the is the length of the vector yc, and M is the length
RGB recorded scenes. The resulting algorithm is of xc, with M > N, each H c d is an N × M convolu-
referred to as grayscale chromatic DFD (GC-DFD) tion matrix.
since it amounts to considering grayscale scenes. Assuming that the noise is a zero-mean white
The scope for such an algorithm is, for instance, Gaussian process with variance σ 2n , the data likeli-
hood is
 
‖Y − H C X‖2
pYjX; σ 2n 
2π −N∕2
σ 2n −N∕2 exp − :
2σ 2n
(4)

C. Grayscale Scene
In the case of a grayscale scene acquired with a chro-
matic camera, each RGB image actually originates
from the same scene so xR
xG
xB
x. Thus the
observation model reduces to

2 3 2 3
yR H R d
6 7 6 7
Y
4 yG 5
4 H G d 5x  N
H gC x  N: (5)
Fig. 4. Generic flowchart of the DFD algorithm for one image
yB H B d
patch.

10 October 2013 / Vol. 52, No. 29 / APPLIED OPTICS 7155

1. Scene Model Pα; d
We propose to use, as in [14], a Gaussian prior
I N;N − H gC dH gC dT H gC d  αDT D−1 H gC dT :
written as
  (10)
2 ‖Dx‖2
px; σ x  ∝ exp − ; (6)
2σ 2x As shown in [30], the number of zero eigenvalues
in P is equal to that of D. As discussed in the previous
with D a matrix composed of the concatenation of the section, D has a single zero eigenvalue associated
convolution matrices corresponding to the vertical with the eigenvector 1. Thus n
1, and reporting
and horizontal first-order derivatives, i.e., the the expression of σ̂ 2n in Eq. (8) we obtain
convolution matrices relative to filters  −1 1  and
 −1 1 T . This model, which can be physically inter- 1 3N−1
preted as a 1∕f 2 decrease of the scene spectrum, has pYjH gC d; α ∝ jPα; dj2 Y T Pα; dY− 2 : (11)
previously shown good results in single image blur
identification [14,27]. Note that matrix D is singular, Maximizing Eq. (11) is equivalent to minimizing
as D1
0. In such a case, the scene prior is said the GL function:
to be improper. Improper models are not uncommon
in statistics, the most famous example being the Y T Pα; dY
GLG d; α
1∕3N−1
: (12)
Brownian motion; moreover, as discussed in the next jPα; dj
section, depth inference can still be derived from
such a prior [28–30]. Note that this expression is formally identical to
the one proposed by Wahba in the context of spline
2. Generalized Likelihood Derivation smoothing [28]. We borrow the term GL from this
In the general case of proper prior distributions, the reference.
probability of observed data Y is obtained by integrat- D. Color Scene
ing out or marginalizing the prior px; σ 2x :
Z Actually, the RGB image originates from three
pYjH gC d; σ 2n ; σ 2x 
pYjx; H gC d; σ 2n px; σ 2x dx: distinct scenes: xR , xG , and xB , which are partially
correlated. We propose to use the luminance and
(7) the red–green and blue–yellow chrominance decom-
position xl ; xc1 ; xc2  defined as
Because px; σ 2x  is improper, the distribution
pYjH gC d; σ 2n ; σ 2x  defined by Eq. (7) is also improper. 2 3 2 3
It is shown in [30] that an extended definition of the xR xl
6 7 6 7
marginal probability can be derived, which yields the 4 xG 5
T ⊗ I M;M  X LC
T ⊗ I M;M  4 xc1 5; (13)
following marginal likelihood: xB xc2

1 Y T Qα;d;σ 2
n Y
pYjH gC d; σ 2n ; α ∝ jQα; d; σ 2n j2 e− 2 ; (8) where
2 3
with jAj corresponding to the product of the nonzero p1 −1
p −1
p
3 2 6
eigenvalues of a matrix A and 6 7
6 −1 7
T
6 p13 p
1
2
p
67
; (14)
Qα;d;σ 2n  4 5
p1 0 p2
3 6
1

2 I N;N − H gC dH gC dT H gC d  αDT D−1 H gC dT ;
σn ⊗ stands for the Kronecker product. The observation
(9) model then writes

where α
σ 2n ∕σ 2x is a regularization parameter that Y
H cC dX LC  N; (15)

accounts for various SNR in different image patches,
and I is the N × N identity matrix. In statistics, Q is
referred to as the precision matrix and when Q H cC d
H C dT ⊗ I M;M : (16)
is regular, it corresponds to the inverse of the
covariance matrix.
To reduce the number of parameters, the likeli-
hood is maximized with respect to σ 2n in order to deal 1. Scene Model
with a generalized likelihood (GL) that depends only According to [31], the three components of the lumi-
on H gC d and α [26, Section 3.8.2]. This maximization nance/chrominance decomposition can be assumed
leads to σ̂ 2n
Y T Pα; dY∕3N − n, where n is the independent. We then use the Gaussian prior (6)
number of zero eigenvalues of the matrix Pα; d on each luminance and chrominance component,
defined as which leads to

7156 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 52, No. 29 / 10 October 2013

  
‖D μXLC ‖2
pX LC ; σ 2x ; μ ∝ exp − C 2
2σ x
2 p 3
μD 0 0
6 7
with DC
4 0 D 0 5:
0 0 D or a sensor with a color filter array (CFA) [32]. For a
Akin to [31], our prior incorporates a parameter μ
that models the ratio between the gradient variances
of the luminance and the chrominance components.
2. Generalized Likelihood Derivation
Following the derivation of Section 2.C, maximum
likelihood estimation of d; α is equivalent to
minimizing the GL function:
Y T Pα; dY
GLC d; α
1∕3N−3
; (18)
jPα; dj
with
Pα; d

I N;N − H cC dH cC dT H cC d  αDTC DC −1 H cC dT :
In this case the number of eigenvalues of Pα; d
is n
3, one for each luminance and chrominance
component.
E. Algorithm Implementation
The two GC-DFD and CC-DFD algorithms have the
same flowchart as the one illustrated in Fig. 4. For
each RGB image patch, the proposed algorithm
selects a depth among a discrete set of potential
depths fd1 ; …; dK g. Each depth dk is associated with
a triplet of PSFs, i.e., fH R dk ; H G dk ; H B dk g ob-
tained by calibration, or by simulation, for example
using an optical design software. The proposed selec-
tion criterion for both algorithms is
dˆk ; α̂
arg min GLX dk ; α;
k;α
where X refers to either G or C for the GC-DFD and
CC-DFD algorithms. To limit the computational bur-
den, we use an efficient computation of the criterion
using a generalized singular value decomposition
(GSVD), as in [14]. We use square patches; however,
other shapes or even adaptation of the patch shape to
the spatial features of the scene could be considered
but lead to a higher computational cost. Note that to
reject homogeneous patches, we use a Canny edge
detector with an adaptive threshold. A patch is proc-
essed only if the Canny filter detects an edge in it;
otherwise the patch is rejected. Finally, for both
GC-DFD and CC-DFD the only parameters that have
to be set by the user are the patch size and, if needed,
the patch overlapping. All other parameters are
either fixed (such as the parameter μ of CC-DFD,
which is discussed in Section 3.B) or automatically
set by the algorithm.
F. Variation of Color Sensor Type
The proposed formalism allows us to deal with the
(17)
case of a 3CCD sensor, a layered photodiode sensor,
3CCD sensor, the input beam is separated, according
to wavelength, on three different sensors of identical
resolution. The layered photodiode sensor uses the
wavelength-dependent absorption length of a semi-
conductor. Both systems provide three full-resolution
RGB images that can be directly superposed. How-
ever, most color cameras use a unique sensor with
a CFA. For instance, the classical Bayer CFA is made
up of 2 × 2 basic cells with one red, one blue, and two
green filters. In this case, the recorded image can be
decomposed into three undersampled red, green, and
blue images. Such undersampling is easily taken into
account in our model by removing the lines corre-
sponding to missing pixels from convolution matrices
H R , H G , and H B in Eq. (3).
3. Simulation Study
To simulate a chromatic lens, a set of triplets of PSFs
(19) is built, each triplet being related to a depth. The
PSFs are supposed to be Gaussian with a standard
deviation defined by σ
ρϵ, where ϵ is given by
Eq. (1) and ρ
0.65. The focal lengths of the RGB
channels are respectively, [25.06, 25.00, 24.81] mm,
the lens diameter D is 6.3 mm, the sensor position
s is 25.22 mm, and the pixel size is 7.4 μm. The re-
sulting in-focus planes of the RGB channels are
respectively at 4, 2.9, and 1.5 m. The set of potential
PSF triplets is built for depth varying from 1.2 to
3.8 m with a step of 5 cm.
In the following, we simulate images acquired by
this ideal chromatic lens, using the computed PSFs
triplet set applied to a set of natural color scenes. For
each scene, composed of three RGB components, we
build three noisy blurred images using a triplet from
the PSFs triplet set associated with the true depth.
(20) We assume a fronto-parallel scene, i.e., a constant
depth over the whole image support, and choose suc-
cessively several depths ranging from 1.3 to 3.5 m.
The acquisition noise is modeled by a zero-mean
white Gaussian pseudo-random noise of standard
deviation 0.05, given that the scenes have a normal-
ized intensity. Depth is then estimated on image
patches of size 20 × 20 pixels extracted from the
three RGB images. In this simulation, without loss
of genericity, a 3CCD sensor is considered.
A. Comparison of GC-DFD and CC-DFD on Simulated
Images
Both GC-DFD and CC-DFD algorithms are tested on
two sets of scenes presented in Fig. 5. The first one is
made of grayscale scenes, and the second one is made
of color scenes. To simulate images from the chro-
matic lens and the grayscale scenes, we convert
the color scene into a grayscale scene and use it to
10 October 2013 / Vol. 52, No. 29 / APPLIED OPTICS 7157
 Table 1. Mean Error Metric (Err) and Standard Deviation (Std) of
Depth Estimation Results over a Set of True Depths Varying from
1.3 to 3.5 m with a Step of 20 cm, for Various Values of μ

μ 1 0.4 0.04 0.004 0.0004

5.5

Error metric (cm)

Error metric (cm) 50 50 Mean err in cm 9.1 7.0 7.2 9.1
Mean std in cm 14 11 8.3 12 16

25 25
for depths varying from 1.3 to 3.5 m for five values
0 0 of μ. The value of μ that gives the lowest error metric
1.2 2.4 3.6 1.2 2.4 3.6 and standard deviation is 0.04. This result is consis-
Depth in m Depth in m tent with the value empirically chosen in [31]. This
75 75 value is fixed for all the other experiments of
the paper.
Std (cm)

Std (cm)

50
25
0 0
1.2 2.4 3.6
Depth in m
(a)
CC−DFD algorithm
GC−DFD algorithm
Fig. 5. Comparison of CC-DFD and GC-DFD algorithms using
error metric and standard deviation (std) computed over a collec-
tion of (a) grayscale scenes and (b) color scenes.
produce each channel image. For the CC-DFD
algorithm the value of μ is fixed at 0.04, a value
empirically determined in [31]. The depth estimation
results for both algorithms and both sets are shown
in Fig. 5.
Figure 5(a) shows that for the set of grayscale
scenes either the GC-DFD or the CC-DFD algorithm
leads to an error metric and a standard deviation
under 10 cm, a value that is close to the depth sam-
pling step of 5 cm used in the PSF set construction.
Despite the fact that it is a grayscale scene, the
CC-DFD algorithm gives results very close to
50
C. Chromatic Versus Achromatic Lens Depth Estimation
25 Performance Study
In this section, we use the CC-DFD algorithm on
1.2 2.4 3.6 simulated images for two imaging systems having
Depth in m either a chromatic or an achromatic lens. The chro-
(b) matic lens is identical to the one simulated in
Section 3.A. The achromatic lens has the same focal
length and f-number, i.e., respectively, 25 mm and 4,
but has a single in-focus plane that is put at 1.5 m in
order to have no depth estimation ambiguity nor
dead zone in the range of 2 to 3 m. The set of potential
PSF triplets for each lens is built for depth varying
from 2 to 4 m with a step of 5 cm. For each imaging
system, we generate 120 image patches of size
20 × 20 pixels using scenes patches extracted from
natural color scenes presented in Fig. 5(b). For each
depth and each imaging system, the RGB images are
obtained by convolution of scene patches with the
corresponding PSFs triplet. White Gaussian noise
is added to the result with a standard deviation of
0.05, given that the scenes have a normalized inten-
sity. Figure 6 shows the error metric and the stan-
dard deviation of the depth estimation obtained
with the CC-DFD algorithm. The error metrics of
both imaging systems are both low; however, the
20
Error metric in cm

the GC-DFD. Moreover, Fig. 5(b) shows that the

GC-DFD algorithm on color scenes leads to unsatis- CL
factory results with a significant error metric on AL
10
small depths and large standard deviation. In con-
trast the CC-DFD algorithm shows far better results
for these color scenes. These simulation results illus- 0
trate that classical DFD techniques, which rely as 2 2.5 3 3.5
the GC-DFD algorithm on the assumption that the Depth in m
blurred images originate from the same scene, are
150
prone to bad estimation results when used with
CL
images of a color scene from a chromatic lens. This
Std in cm

100 AL
justifies the need for the algorithm based on the
modelization of the correlation between the RGB 50
channels, such as the proposed CC-DFD.
0
B. Setting of the Parameter μ 2 2.5 3 3.5
The depth estimation tests conducted in Section 3.A Depth in m
on the CC-DFD algorithm with color scenes are Fig. 6. Comparison of CC-DFD algorithm using either an achro-
reproduced for different values of μ. Table 1 shows matic lens (AL) or a chromatic lens (CL). Lens parameters for both
the mean error metric and mean standard deviation systems are given in Section 3.C.

7158 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 52, No. 29 / 10 October 2013

standard deviation with the chromatic lens is much
B

Blur radius in pixel (ε)

lower than with an achromatic one. This study illus- 15
trates the performance gain in terms of accuracy of
G
using chromatic aberration for depth estimation.
10
4. Experimental Validation on a Real Chromatic R
Camera
To experimentally demonstrate the efficiency of the 5
proposed approach, we have built a prototype camera
with a chromatic lens. The design of the lens and the
0
chosen calibration procedure are first presented. 1 2 3 4 5
Then we demonstrate the depth estimation capabil- Depth in m
ity of our chromatic approach using this prototype
Fig. 7. Theoretical blur variation with respect to depth for the
with the CC-DFD algorithm. designed chromatic camera.
A. Lens Design
1. Settings to account for Bayer matrix undersampling. Figure 8
We have designed a customized optical system using shows the focal shift between the red and the blue
the optical design software Zemax. We use a commer- wavelengths and the lateral chromatic aberration
cially available 5 megapixel CFA Stingray color sen- of the obtained triplet. As expected, the maximal
sor with a pixel size of 3.45 μm. The lens focal length lateral chromatic aberration is of 1 μm, which is less
is fixed at 25 mm, and the depth estimation range is than the sensor pixel size.
chosen from 1 to 5 m, to conduct both indoors and
outdoors tests. These settings lead to an optic with 3. Lens Realization
a diagonal field of view of around 25°.
Figure 9 shows the obtained triplet, and the color
rays corresponding to different point sources at vari-
2. Design Process ous field angles. The specifications of the triplet were
Given the lens settings, our aim was to build a lens sent to an optical lens manufacturer who built the
with sufficient longitudinal chromatic aberration to lenses. We have mounted the obtained lens on a
have separated RGB DoF in the required depth customized mechanical structure, and the optical
range, and thus avoid dead zones, as explained in system was fixed in front of the Stingray color sensor.
Section 1.A and Fig. 3(b). On the other hand, all other A picture of the obtained camera is presented
aberrations should be reduced as much as possible, in Fig. 10.
in order to maintain good image quality, and in par-
ticular lateral chromatic aberration, because it B. Lens Calibration
causes misalignment of the RGB images. The CC-DFD algorithm requires a set of potential
The design of a lens with reduced field aberrations defocus blur triplets. To build such a set, one could
for such a field of view requires us to use at least a use several techniques, such as modeling the PSF
lens triplet. We choose to start with a classical 25 mm with a pill-box function, with Fourier optics formula
f ∕4 triplet made of two convergent lenses separated [33], or using simulated PSF generated by an optical
by a divergent lens, which is the triplet aperture
stop, because this configuration naturally helps to
reduce lateral chromatic aberration. In the classical
optical design, the lens glasses would usually be
chosen so that their constringence difference reduces
longitudinal chromatic aberration, for instance,
respectively, crown, flint, and crown glasses. Hence,
the amount of longitudinal chromatic aberration can
be tuned by changing the triplet glasses.
We have compared several choices of glass for the
triplet, and we found that a focal shift of 200 μm,
obtained with the glasses N-BK7/LLF1/N-BK7,
was an amount of chromatic aberration that correctly
separates the RGB DoF in the depth range of 1 to
5 m. Indeed, as illustrated in Fig. 7, with this triplet,
when the green channel is focused around 2.8 m, the
in-focus planes of the blue and red channels are ap-
proximately at 1.9 and 4.5 m and the camera always
has at least one channel whose blur size is above one Fig. 8. Focal shift and lateral chromatic shift between the red and
pixel in the range 1 to 5 m. Note that the pixel unit in the blue wavelengths of the proposed chromatic lens estimated by
this figure is twice that of the detector pitch in order the optical design software Zemax.

10 October 2013 / Vol. 52, No. 29 / APPLIED OPTICS 7159

 (a)

R G B

Fig. 9. Chromatic lens scheme given by Zemax, according to the

optical design of Section 4.A. Color rays correspond to point (b)
sources at different field angles.

design software with the theoretical lens settings. (c)

However, these methods do not take into account
aberrations, misalignment, or mechanical construc-
tion errors. A solution is to calibrate the PSFs of
the actual camera prototype using either a point (d)
source or a known high frequency pattern [12,34,35].
We use the method proposed in [35], with the black-
and-white pattern shown in Fig. 11(d), for depths Fig. 11. (a) Random pattern of [35] used for the RGB PSFs
varying from 1 to 5 m with a step of 5 cm. As the trip- calibration. (b)–(d) Examples of calibrated PSFs at (b) 4.7 m,
let still suffers from field aberrations that imply a (c) 2.7 m, and (d) 2 m.
PSF variation with field angle, we build an on-axis
and off-axis potential PSFs set. Figure 11 shows
on-axis calibrated PSFs at three different depths
for the three RGB channels. Note that the compari- True depth Estimation
son of depth estimation results using different cali-
5
bration techniques remains an interesting subject
for further studies. Indeed, recent works propose 4
to use only few calibrated PSFs to estimate any
3
PSF at any range [36,37]. Implementation of these
methods could also be interesting here in order to 2
limit the number of snapshots required for PSF
calibration. 1
1 2.5 4
C. Depth Estimation Accuracy Evaluation
5
Acquisitions are made of color textured plane fronto-
parallel scenes put at different distances from the 4
camera. For each scene and at each distance, depth 3
is estimated with the CC-DFD algorithm on image
patches of size 21 × 21 inside a centered region of size 2
120 × 120, where the PSF is supposed to be constant, 1
with a patch overlapping of 50%. Figure 12 shows 1 2.5 4
depth estimation results for the four scenes pre-
sented in Fig. 12. We plot the mean and the standard 5
deviation of the estimated depth results for each 4
scene position with respect to the ground truth given
3
2
1
1 2.5 4
5
4
3
2
1
Fig. 10. Customized chromatic lens (left) has been mounted on a 1 2.5 4
Stingray color sensor to obtain a chromatic camera (right) of Fig. 12. Evaluation of depth estimation accuracy on real fronto-
dimensions 4.5 × 4.5 × 8 cm. parallel color scenes. Axes are in m.

7160 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 52, No. 29 / 10 October 2013

 True depth Estimation
5
1
1 2 3 4
5
2 Fig. 14. Results of the prototype chromatic camera on indoor
1 depth map. (c) Raw depth map with CC-DFD with a patch size of
1 2 3 4
5
4 algorithm.
3
2 depth maps given by the Kinect. Homogeneous re-
1
1 2 3 4
Fig. 13. Evaluation of depth estimation accuracy on real fronto-
parallel grayscale scenes. Axes are in m.
by the Kinect. Indeed, the Kinect accuracy ranges
from a few millimeters at 1 m to 3 cm at 3 m [38],
which is lower than the sampling of depths in our po-
tential set. For each scene, bias is comparable to the
PSF calibration step (5 cm) and standard deviation
varies from 3 to 10 cm between 1 and 3.5 m. The
same experiment was repeated with the same tar-
gets printed in grayscale, leading to very similar
results, presented in Fig. 13. These results demon-
strate that the CC-DFD algorithm combined with
a chromatic camera can provide accurate depth
estimation and is robust to various scene textures.
Note, however, that both bias and standard
deviation degrade after 3.5 m. One can explain this
degradation by looking at the theoretical PSF size
variations of the prototype lens presented in Fig. 7.
First, the variation of the PSF size reduces with
depth, so it is not surprising that the accuracy of
depth estimation reduces as well. Besides, the PSF
of the red channel is below one pixel after 3.5 m,
so this channel no longer gives depth information,
which reduces the performance.
D. Depth Maps
1. Comparison with an Active Ranging System for
Indoor Scenes
Figure 14 shows three examples of depth maps
obtained from images acquired with our prototype
of chromatic camera using the CC-DFD algorithm
with 21 × 21 square patches and 50% overlapping.
As they are indoor scenes, the depth maps obtained
scenes. (a) Raw image acquired with the chromatic lens. (b) Kinect’s
21 × 21 and 50% overlapping. The depth labels are in m. Black
label corresponds to homogeneous regions rejected by the
with the CC-DFD algorithm can be compared to the
gions, where depth can not be estimated, appear in
black in the depth map.
In the first two examples, the estimated depth
maps are noisier but consistent with the Kinect
depth map. The third example is a case in which
the Kinect depth map locally shows outliers. This
is due to occultations and thin surfaces where the
Kinect pattern does not reflect properly. In contrast,
the proposed chromatic DFD camera correctly esti-
mates a depth map for such a complex scene.
2. Outdoor Situations
In contrast with the Kinect that is sensible to the sun
IR illumination, the proposed chromatic camera can
also be used for outdoor depth estimation. Figure 15
shows examples of raw depth maps obtained in vari-
ous outdoor situations with the CC-DFD algorithm
with 9 × 9 square patches and 50% overlapping. In
the estimated depth maps, various objects can be
distinguished, including thin ones like the grid in
the second example. Note that this kind of repetitive
object misleads the correlation technique, so would
be difficult to identify with a stereoscopic device.
5. Discussion
A. Robustness of Depth Estimation with Respect to
Variation of the Scene Spectrum
In the proposed DFD approach, we take advantage of
the interchannel chromatic aberration in order to
estimate depth from a set of potential calibrated
PSFs triplets. However, the object spectrum can have
an influence on the actual PSF size due to intrachan-
nel chromatic aberration. One option to reduce the
PSF variability within a color channel would be to
use a sensor with narrowband color filter. However,
this approach would increase the complexity of the
10 October 2013 / Vol. 52, No. 29 / APPLIED OPTICS 7161

2
1.5
1 prototype chromatic camera using the high frequency transfer
Fig. 15. Results of the prototype chromatic camera on outdoor
scenes. (Left) Raw image acquired with the chromatic lens. (Right)
Raw depth map with CC-DFD with a patch size of 9 × 9 and 50%
overlapping. The depth labels are in m. Black label corresponds to
homogeneous regions rejected by the algorithm.
device realization and reduce the SNR. Here we opt
for an off-the-shelf RGB sensor having broadband
color filters. Then we assume that the observed
scenes have a sufficiently large spectrum to be
consistent with PSFs calibrated with a black-and-
white pattern as described in Section 4.B. The
experimental results obtained with various color or
grayscale scenes show that this assumption is valid
enough to give an accurate depth estimation.
Finally, in the limit case of an object emitting only
in the spectrum of one channel, two channels out
of three will receive no signal, which will probably
reduce the CC-DFD efficiency. However, in our opin-
ion this case is unlikely to happen in natural scenes,
and even so it could be detected with a preprocessing
so as to use a single image DFD approach [14] on a
valid channel.
B. Image Restoration
Chromatic aberration induces an inhomogeneous
resolution among the RGB channels. Thus, as illus-
trated in Fig. 16(a), the raw RGB image requires
restoration. The issue with a chromatic lens is that
blur is both spatially and spectrally variant. As the
CC-DFD algorithm provides a depth value, hence
a triplet of PSFs, for each local RGB patch one
7162 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 52, No. 29 / 10 October 2013
(a) (b)
(c) (d) (e) (f)
Fig. 16. Example of restoration of a real image acquired with the
approach of Eq. (21). (a) Raw image. (b) Image after restoration.
(c) and (e) Zoomed detail patches from the raw red channel.
(d) and (f) Restored detailed of the red channel.
could consider restoration by local multichannel
deconvolution, although such approaches would
probably be computationally demanding. On the
other hand, the prototype camera has been designed
so that the blur is mainly caused by defocus and that,
for a large depth range, there is at least one sharp
channel out of three (see Fig. 7). Thus we propose
a simple and fast restoration technique by transfer-
ring the high frequencies of the sharpest channel to
others. Such an approach has been proposed in [21]
and is also related to pansharpening in satellite im-
aging. Formally the restored channel yc is the sum of
the original image with a weighted sum of the high
frequencies of all channels:
yc;out  p
yc;in p  adp;R HPR p  adp;G HPG p
 adp;B HPB p; (21)
where HPc p is the output of a high-pass filter
(difference of Gaussian) at pixel p applied on the
image of the channel c.
The weight of a channel c depends on the distance
of the object with respect to the in-focus planes of
that channel. If the object is at depth d close to
the depth d0;c of the in-focus plane of a channel,
its image in this channel is likely to have high
frequency content. Weights are then decreasing func-
tions of jd0;c − dj, as presented in Fig. 17. In practice,
for each pixel, the weights are computed using the
estimated depth provided by the CC-DFD algorithm.
In homogeneous regions, the weights are set to
zero. Note that the restoration equation (21) is
formally similar to the one used in [21] but, in this
reference, the weights are computed on the basis
of a local contrast of each channel through a learned
function. Figure 16 presents an example of restora-
tion of a real image acquired with the prototype
chromatic camera. The resolution gain appears
 1 1
relies on a simple and fast median filter. The median
filter has a size of three times the patch size. This

d,G
d,R
0.5 0.5

a
filter helps to eliminate the outliers in the back-
0 0 ground but does not propagate depth information
2 4 2 4
on homogeneous regions. The second regularization
Depth in m Depth in m
(a) (b) approach consists in optimizing a criterion based on
a Markov random field model of the depth map:
1 X
Ed
GLC dp
d,B
a 0.5 p

0 ‖yg p − yg q‖2
2 4
Depth in m
(c)
Fig. 17. Weights for the high frequency transfer equation (21) as
a function of depth.
clearly on the details of the red channel presented in
Figs. 16(c)–16(f). A quantitative evaluation of the re-
storation gain could be the subject of further studies.
C. Depth Map Regularization
In Fig. 14, we have presented raw depth maps
obtained with the CC-DFD algorithm. These raw
results present few outliers, and show no depth infor-
mation on homogeneous regions that are excluded
from the processing. A regularization approach
can be use to overcome these two issues. Here we
present preliminary results of two regularization
approaches. The first one, presented in Fig. 18(a),
2.5
2 depth map regularization should also be conducted.
1.5
1 References
(a) (b)
Fig. 18. Result of depth map regularization. From up to down:
acquired image, raw depth map, regularized depth map: (a) with
a median filter of size 3 × 3, (b) after the minimization of Eq. (22).
The depth labels are in m. Black label corresponds to homogeneous
regions rejected by the algorithm.
X  
λ exp − 1 − δdp ;dq ;
p;q∈N p
2σ 2
(22)
where N p is a first-order neighborhood of the pixel p,
dp is the estimated depth value at pixel p, and yg is
the result of color image conversion in grayscale.
This energy favors depth jumps located on image
edges. We minimize this criterion using a graphcut
algorithm [12,15,39]. Figure 18(b) presents the
results obtained with λ
1.1 and σ
4.10−4 . The
parameters have been chosen to propagate informa-
tion over homogeneous regions and lead to a result
that is close to a depth segmentation.
6. Conclusion
In this paper we have proposed a new passive
method for depth estimation based on the use of
chromatic aberration and a DFD approach. We have
presented an algorithm that estimates depth locally
using a PSFs triplet selection criterion derived from
a maximum likelihood calculation. This algorithm is
based on a modelization of the interchannel scene
correlation, which allows estimation of depth on color
scene patches. Simulated and experimental tests
have illustrated the effectiveness of the proposed al-
gorithm and provide a demonstration of the concept
of chromatic DFD.
There are several perspectives for this work. The
calibration process could be improved so as to reduce
the number of calibration images required. Regard-
ing the processing, we are currently working on a
parallel implementation of the CC-DFD algorithm.
A more detailed study of image restoration and
Finally, the design of the chromatic lens could be
optimized to improve the overall performance of
the system using the codesign approach presented
in [40].
The authors would like to thank F. Bernard and
L. Jacubowiez for fruitful discussions.
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