While this work operates on ToF sensors that are already present in smartphones (e.g., Samsung S20+/Ultra), a Microsoft/Azure Kinect should also be a valid option because it has a depth camera as well. It has a higher resolution and bit-depth as well.
We initially intended to compare against the Kinect, but it doesn't fit the use case (something that you can have on you at all times). However, it could be a cheap choice for a different kind of deployment (automated hidden camera detection with robots, perhaps?)
So I had no idea phones have ToF sensors these days. Do most phones have them or only the high-priced flagships? What are the actual intended uses for them?
High priced flagships have them but there are also a few midrange phones like the Huawei P30 Pro that have them too. The trend seems pretty positive towards more ToF sensors in phones, especially because Apple has had them for two iPhone Pros in a row now.
They're basically for augmented reality applications because they sense depth. Placing objects at the right size and scale in the augmented view is much easier and more accurate with the ToF sensors, for instance.
Any phone that has sub 200ms focus times has to have some sort of TOF sensor, right? The Asus Zenfone 2/3 laser, the Huawei monochrome sensor on the honor series, the portrait and/or macro sensors on the Xiaomi mi note 10, whatever the original Zenfone had, and so on.
Not all of them are lasers, which might be important.
I don't think so. There's "laser-assisted autofocus" which might be slang for an actual ToF sensor, but sometimes that's just a single laser pulse (I.e., no 2D image that we need).
Do you have a link to where you can buy these types of time of flight lasers/sensors? Curious about the additional hardware cost versus sensitivity.