A depth camera assembly (DCA) for depth sensing of a local area. The DCA includes a polarized light generator, an imaging device, and a controller. The polarized light generator modulates one or more optical beams emitted from an illumination source to generate modulated light, and projects the modulated light into the local area as polarized light having a first polarization. The imaging device receives light from the local area, the received light including ambient light and a portion of the polarized light reflected from the local area. The imaging device reduces an intensity of the received light having polarization different from a second polarization to generate filtered light substantially composed of light of the second polarization, and detects the portion of the polarized light having the second polarization using the filtered light. The controller determines depth information for the local area based on the detected portion of the polarized light.