We present an inexpensive architecture for converting a frequency-modulated
continuous-wave LiDAR system into a compressive-sensing based depth-mapping
camera. Instead of raster scanning to obtain depth-maps, compressive sensing is
used to significantly reduce the number of measurements. Ideally, our approach
requires two difference detectors. % but can operate with only one at the cost
of doubling the number of measurments. Due to the large flux entering the
detectors, the signal amplification from heterodyne detection, and the effects
of background subtraction from compressive sensing, the system can obtain
higher signal-to-noise ratios over detector-array based schemes while scanning
a scene faster than is possible through raster-scanning. %Moreover, we show how
a single total-variation minimization and two fast least-squares minimizations,
instead of a single complex nonlinear minimization, can efficiently recover
high-resolution depth-maps with minimal computational overhead. Moreover, by
efficiently storing only 2m data points from m<n measurements of an n
pixel scene, we can easily extract depths by solving only two linear equations
with efficient convex-optimization methods