LiDAR based autofocus system for manual lenses and older camera systems

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2023-05

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Being a creative in my early years showed me the importance of having good equipment and tools in your arsenal. Having to shoot an educational YouTube video solo and struggle to get the camera to just focus on my face was a huge hurdle for me. A few years down the line I met a number of creatives in high school and college, and they all shared stories of how much more they could have done if they had good autofocus in their old and budget cameras. Studies show that the media and entertainment industry is worth more than a trillion dollars in 2023 and young talents need the capable tools to create and add to this ever-growing sector [36]. The engineering project in this report addresses the problem of high cost and limited accessibility of fast autofocus lenses and autofocus cameras. While smartphone cameras are currently the most popular cameras in the world, they have small sensors that perform poorly in less-than-ideal lighting conditions and lack special characteristics of larger sensors such as optical blur due to higher apertures, less artificial sharpening to compensate for less detail and better performance in low light. The best options for large sensor cameras are budget DSLRs or cameras with manual lenses, but this combination does not have access to good autofocus. The motivation for this project is to provide a truly cost-effective alternative to passive autofocus systems by designing an active camera autofocus system using LIDAR distance detection. This system aims to cut costs and provide a faster and more precise autofocus solution for manual lenses and older autofocus systems.

Description

Capstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, May 2023

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