An object detection device includes: a transmission/reception unit that has a vibrator capable of transmitting and receiving ultrasound, that causes the vibrator to transmit transmission signals at different timings, and that receives the reception signals returning after being reflected on a circumferentially existing object; an acquisition unit that acquires a first distance to the object, based on a time difference between a transmission timing of a first transmission signal and a reception timing of a first reception signal, and that acquires a relative speed of the object, based on a frequency difference between the first transmission signal and the first reception signal; an estimation unit that estimates a second distance to the object at a transmission timing of a second transmission signal to be transmitted subsequently to the first transmission signal; and an adjustment unit that adjusts the number of waves or a transmission time of the second transmission signal.

A vehicle flow monitoring system for detecting both a car count and direction of movement of vehicles passing a point of interest. The vehicle flow monitoring system generally includes a car counter which may include a microcontroller and a pair of distance sensors. Each of the distance sensors is oriented toward a unique point of interest. Each of the distance sensors includes a threshold distance reading which is used to detect whether a vehicle has passed underneath the car counter. The system may determine direction of travel of the vehicle based on which of the distance sensors is passed by the vehicle first. The microcontroller may assign an Event ID to each time a vehicle passes each of the sensors, with the Event ID being used to identify when and if the vehicle should be counted, or whether a non-vehicle object has passed the car counter.

The invention relates to a method for monitoring a surrounding area (6) of a motor vehicle (1), wherein measurement points of surfaces of objects (7) in the surrounding area (6) detected by at least two sensor devices (4, 5) of the motor vehicle (1) are received, and wherein first measurement points of a first surface area (13) detected by a first sensor device (4) are received and second measurement points of a second surface area (14) with no overlap with the first surface area (13) detected by a second sensor device (5) are received, the first and second measurement points are used to determine a relative position of the surface areas (13, 14) with respect to each other, it is determined whether the surface areas (13, 14) are to be assigned to a single object (7) based on the relative position and, if so, the surface areas (13, 14) are combined into a total surface area (12) of the object (7). The invention also concerns a sensor control unit (9), a driver assistance system (2) and a motor vehicle (1).

The invention relates to a method for operating an ultrasonic sensor (4) of a vehicle (1), in which a sound transducer element (11) of the ultrasonic sensor (4) is excited with a predetermined excitation signal, wherein the excitation signal has a predetermined current amplitude, an electrical test voltage (U) at the sound transducer element (11) resulting from the excitation signal is measured, and a diagnosis of the ultrasonic sensor (4) is carried out on the basis of the test voltage (U), wherein the ultrasonic sensor (4) is excited with the excitation signal in a measuring mode for the transmission of an ultrasonic signal, the electrical test voltage (U) is measured during the transmission, on the basis of the electrical test voltage (U) a reduced diagnosis is carried out, wherein the ultrasonic sensor (4) either continues to be operated in the measuring mode or is operated in a diagnostic mode for a complete diagnosis, depending on a result of the reduced diagnosis.

A method for geolocating a mobile computing device within an indoor environment. One embodiment may comprise generating a geolocation request audio signal by a speaker of a first device starting at a first point in time, receiving, by a microphone of the first device, a reply audio signal from a second device, and extracting, by one or more processors of the first device, information encoded in the reply audio signal. The method may further comprise estimating, by the one or more processors, a receipt time by the first device for the reply audio signal and calculating a first time of flight (TOF) using the first point in time and the estimated receipt time for a second audio signal. The first device may comprise a smartphone and the second device may comprise a beacon located at a known location in an indoor environment.

Systems and methods for generating simulated LiDAR data using RADAR and image data are provided. An algorithm is trained using deep-learning techniques such as loss functions to generate simulated LiDAR data using RADAR and image data. Once trained, the algorithm can be implemented in a system, such as a vehicle, equipped with RADAR and image sensors in order to generate simulated LiDAR data describing the system's environment. The simulated LiDAR data may be used by a vehicle control system to determine, generate, and implement modified driving operations.

In many applications such as automobiles on busy highways, if a lot of vehicles on road are equipped with Doppler radars to help improve driving safety, no matter human-driven or auto-driven, if the radars use same frequency band, avoiding interference between them is a hard task. Assigning distinct frequencies is one of the solutions, however not only it wastes expensive spectrum resource, but also the task itself to dynamically assign frequency to vehicles randomly come together becomes a hard one to do. The disclosed invention of Doppler group radar will allow radar devices to work together using shared frequency band without interfering one another, without sacrificing performance, and without much increase in costs.

An object detection apparatus includes a sensor module including a sensor, and a controller that controls the sensor and generates output information, based on a signal that the sensor outputs; and a detector that determines presence or absence of the object, based on the output information. The detector executes a reference object detection process of detecting a reference object existing at a predetermined position within the detection range, by comparing the output information and predetermined reference information, and, when the reference object is detected, executes a correction process of correcting at least one of the output information or a parameter for the sensor, based on the reference information and reference object information that is information indicative of the reference object in the output information.

A plurality of control points (10) are defined which each have a known spatial relationship relative to an array of transducers. An amplitude is assigned to each control point (12). A matrix (16) is produced containing elements which represent, for each of the control points, the effect that producing a modeled acoustic field having the assigned amplitude with a particular phase at the control point has on the consequential amplitude and phase of the modeled acoustic field at the other control points (14). Eigenvectors of the matrix (18) are determined, each eigenvector representing a set of phases and relative amplitudes of the modeled acoustic field at the control points. One of the sets (20) is selected and the transducer array is operated to cause one or more of the transducers to output an acoustic wave each having an initial amplitude and phase such that the phases and amplitudes of the resultant acoustic field at the control points correspond to the phases and relative amplitudes of the selected set (22, 24).

In some implementations, a method of verifying operation of a sensor is provided. The method includes causing a sensor to obtain sensor data at a first time, wherein the sensor obtains the sensor data by emitting waves towards a detector. The method also includes determining that the detector has detected the waves at a second time. The method further includes receiving the sensor data from the sensor at a third time. The method further includes verifying operation of the sensor based on at least one of the first time, the second time, or the third time.