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Range-imaging is a measurement technique able to generate an image which contains the distance information from the camera to all the points of a scene. This distance information can be captured by, amongst others, the Time-of-Flight principle which measures the time a light pulse needs to travel back and forth from the camera to the scene and converts this time into a depth value. For a good operation of the Time-of-Flight principle, a high-power, fast-modulated light source is required. Currently, most 3D cameras use laser diodes or LEDs. Moreover, most systems use square-wave modulation of the light source, requiring high bandwidths of the optical driver. To enhance both bandwidth and optical power, we developed a light source consisting of 16 high-power (50 mW) laser diodes using GHz laser drivers, combined with GHz buffers. Moreover, this light source can be integrated in a Time-of-Flight camera. Specifically, we designed and experimentally validated this new light source, based on ultra-fast laser diodes, allowing an increased performance of the current Time-of-Flight cameras. In this paper, we first discuss the development of a high-power illumination board, with a large beam divergence and suitable for high-speed square-wave modulation with a chosen duty-cycle. Our light source can be modulated faster than 1 GHz, which corresponds to optical pulses shorter than 500 ps. Moreover, the pulses can be shifted in time with sub-nanosecond precision. Secondly, we integrated this light source into a Time-of-Flight setup, able to measure the distances of objects behind a semi-transparent surface. The resulting images are compared with the image quality of commercially available Time-of-Flight cameras. From these results, we can conclude that our light source is suitable for Time-of-Flight measurements and gives a low-cost alternative for imaging purposes. Moreover, it can handle both pulsed as continuous-wave Time-of-Flight, to allow a broader range of applications.

Time-of-Flight (ToF) methods are used in different applications for depth measurements. There are mainly 2 types of ToF measurements, Pulsed Time-of-Flight and Continuous-Wave Time-of-Flight. Pulsed Time-of-Flight (PToF) techniques are mostly used in combination with a scanning mirror, which makes them not well suited for imaging purposes. Continuous-wave Time-of-Flight (CWToF) techniques are mostly used wide-field, hence they are much faster and more suited for imaging purposes but cannot be used behind partially-reflective surfaces. In commercial applications, both ToF methods require specific hardware, which cannot be exchanged. In this paper, we discuss the transformation of a CWToF sensor to a PToF camera, which is able to make images and measure the distances of objects behind a partially-reflective surface, like the air-water interface in swimming pools when looking from above. We first created our own depth camera which is suitable for both CWToF and PToF. We describe the necessary hardware componentsfor a normal ToF camera and compare it with the adapted components which make it a range-gating depth imager. Afterwards, we modeled the distances and images of one or more objects positioned behind a partially-reflective surface and combine it with measurement data of the optical pulse. A scene was virtualized and the rays from a raytracing software tool were exported to Matlab(TM). Subsequently, pulse deformations were calculated for every pixel, which resulted in the calculation of the depth information.

While extremely relevant to many life science fields, such as biomedical diagnostics and drug delivery, studies on the size of nanoparticulate matter dispersed in biofluids are missing due to a lack of suitable methods. Here we report that fluorescence single particle tracking (fSPT) with maximum entropy analysis is the first technique suited for accurate sizing of nanoparticles dispersed in biofluids, such as whole blood. After a thorough validation, the fSPT sizing method was applied to liposomes that have been under investigation for decades as nanocarriers for drugs. The tendency of these liposomes to form aggregates in whole blood was tested in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we have demonstrated that the fSPT sizing technique can be used for identifying and sizing natural cell-derived microparticles directly in plasma. fSPT sizing opens up the possibility to systematically study the size and aggregation of endogenous or exogenous nanoparticles in biofluids.