METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AN IMAGE CONTAINING DEPTH INFORMATION

Method and apparatus for producing an image containing depth information is provided. The method detects radiation emanating from a scene and forms at least two images of the scene at different planes. Each image contains a set of intensity data values. A variation of the data values is obtained so that two sets of intensity variances are obtained from the data values, and the intensity variance data is processed to obtain depth information. The depth information is coded so as to identify different depth information in the image data.