Some interesting reads. Here is
what the FAA says about monocular vision. Here is an interesting passage.
"Although it has been repeatedly demonstrated that binocular vision is not a prerequisite for flying, some aspects of depth perception, either by stereopsis or by monocular cues, are necessary. It takes time for the monocular airman to develop the techniques to interpret the monocular cues that substitute for stereopsis; such as, the interposition of objects, convergence, geometrical perspective, distribution of light and shade, size of known objects, aerial perspective, and motion parallax.
In addition, it takes time for the monocular airman to compensate for his or her decrease in effective visual field. A monocular airman's effective visual field is reduced by as much as 30% by monocularity. This is especially important because of speed smear; i.e., the effect of speed diminishes the effective visual field such that normal visual field is decreased from 180 degrees to as narrow as 42 degrees or less as speed increases. A monocular airman's reduced effective visual field would be reduced even further than 42 degrees by speed smear."
Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners
www.faa.gov
A good overview of stereo vision aka multiview geometry.
en.wikipedia.org
A great read on using a single camera even if a bit dated. It was written in 2015 so likely relevant when Tesla was developing their AP/FSD systems. Just reading the abstract is interesting. I bolded the part Elon was most likely interested in.
Object Distance Measurement Using a Single Camera for Robotic Applications
An excerpt from the abstract.
"The stereovision method uses two cameras to find the object’s depth and is highly accurate. However, it is costly compared to the monovision technique due to the higher computational burden and the cost of two cameras (rather than one) and related accessories. In addition, in stereovision, a larger number of images of the object need to be processed in real-time, and by increasing the distance of the object from cameras, the measurement accuracy decreases. In the time-of-flight distance measurement technique, distance information is obtained by measuring the total time for the light to transmit to and reflect from the object. The shortcoming of this technique is that it is difficult to separate the incoming signal, since it depends on many parameters such as the intensity of the reflected light, the intensity of the background light, and the dynamic range of the sensor. However, for applications such as rescue robot or object manipulation by a robot in a home and office environment, the high accuracy distance measurement provided by stereovision is not required. Instead, the monovision approach is attractive for some applications due to:
i) lower cost and lower computational burden; and ii) lower complexity due to the use of only one camera."
