Some people have been wondering if the IR projector is somehow synced to the camera that does 3D estimation.
Short answer: No.
Long answer:
The easiest way to visualize a modulated signal is to use an oscilloscope. I got out my trusty Hameg and hooked up a photodiode to it. This photodiode has a peak response at 850nm, plenty close to the IR coming out of the projector on the Kinect.
I connected the photodiode to my ‘scope probe.
As a sanity check, hold it under a CFL bulb. You can clearly see the bulb oscillating on the ‘scope.
Holding the same photodiode in front of the Kinect IR projector gets…. flatline. As far as I could observe, the projector is never modulated — during capture, or when capture is not running but the Kinect is on.
Are you sure it’s not modulated? It’s very hard for a 3D-CMOS ToF sensor to make an estimation of the distance without pulses…
Marco, it’s not ToF. The Kinect exploits speckle to produce 3D, not ToF. Check the Primesense patent applications.
And yes, I’m sure it’s unmodulated.