The invention relates to a terahertz (THz) apparatus for transmitting and/or receiving THz radiation, comprising at least one THz element, which is designed to transmit and/or receive THz radiation, and a digital data processing device, wherein in particular the digital data processing device is designed to at least temporarily process a first signal of at least one component of the apparatus.

The present disclosure generally relates to providing indicators of distance. For example, display of a visual distance indicator that indicates the distance between a computer system and an entity is provided.

Products and processes for measuring crop and pasture surface profile which may be used to measure the average surface profile of crop and pasture foliage around stationary measurement devices.

Disclosed is an interactive spatial orientation method and system. The method includes: sequentially scanning, by a scanning apparatus, a receiving apparatus in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to each other; converting, by the receiving apparatus, received optical signals generated from the first scanning and the second scanning into radio waves carrying results of the first scanning and the second scanning, and transferring the radio waves to a processing apparatus; synthesizing, by the processing apparatus, the results of the first scanning and the second scanning to obtain six degrees of freedom information of the receiving apparatus. The system includes a scanning apparatus; a receiving apparatus; and a processing apparatus.

A distance measuring device and a method for determining a distance are provided. The method includes: illuminating an object with a sequence of the light pulses, capturing one arriving light pulse corresponding to an intensity T.sub.e,l within a first integration gate, and outputting a signal value U.sub.1, capturing another arriving light pulse corresponding to the intensity T.sub.e,l within a second integration gate, and outputting a signal value U.sub.2, capturing one arriving light pulse corresponding to an intensity I.sub.e,h within the first integration gate and outputting a signal value U.sub.3, capturing the other arriving light pulse corresponding to the intensity I.sub.e,h within the second integration gate and outputting a signal value U.sub.4, and calculating the distance between the distance measuring device and the object based on U.sub.1, U.sub.2, U.sub.3, and U.sub.4.

A thickness measurement device includes a chassis provided with an installation surface on which a measurement object is installed and a facing surface disposed parallel to the installation surface with a gap therebetween. A distance measurement instrument measures the distances to objects in two opposite directions. A movement mechanism positions the distance measurement instrument at a measurement point between the installation surface and the facing surface such that the measurement directions thereof are aligned with the direction along the gap between the installation surface and the facing surface. An arithmetic unit calculates the difference between the total of the distances measured at the measurement point in a state in which the measurement object is not installed on the installation surface and the total of the distances measured in a state in which the measurement object is installed on the installation surface.

An apparatus (1) for profiling the depth of a surface of a target object (30), having a two-dimensional array of lasers (5), an optical device (15) for projecting a two-dimensional illumination pattern (31) onto an area of the surface of the target object, an image capture device (10) arranged to capture an image of the two-dimensional illumination pattern projected onto the area of the surface of the target object and a processor (25) configured to process the captured image in order to reconstruct a depth profile of the two-dimensional area of the surface of the target object from the image captured by the image capture device.

Disclosed is a method and a system for the automated computation of a length or width dimension of a moving platform. The method includes sending radio waves toward the platform along a predetermined transmission axis and acquiring at least one digital power profile signal representative of a received reflected signal power as a function of a radial distance along the transmission axis relative to a reference point. This method next includes applying a filtering operator on the acquired digital power profile signal, making it possible to obtain a filtered digital signal, determining, by computation, a first radial distance corresponding to a first variation peak of the filtered digital signal and a second radial distance corresponding to a second variation peak of the filtered digital signal, and the computing a radial dimension of the platform as a function of the first and second radial distances.

A distance determining system comprising: a light source, configured to emit light; a first light sensing region, away from the light source for a first distance, comprising at least one first light sensing device; a second light sensing region, away from the light source for a second distance larger than the first distance, comprising at least one second light sensing device; and a processing circuit, configured to compute distance information of an object which reflects the light to the first light sensing region and the second light sensing region, according to a first relation between a first light intensity sensed by the first light sensing region and a second light intensity sensed by the second light sensing region.

A method and apparatus for an angle meter cooperatively using two or more non-contact distance meters for measuring distances to a surface along substantially parallel lines. The measured distances are used for estimating or calculating the angle to the surface and the distance to the surface. The distance meters may use optical means, where a visible or non-visible light or laser beam is emitted and received, acoustical means, where an audible or ultrasound sound is emitted and received, or an electromagnetic scheme, where radar beam is transmitted and received. The distances may be estimated using a Time-of-Flight (TOF), homodyne or heterodyne phase detection schemes. The distance meters may share the same correlator, signal conditioning circuits, or the same sensor. Two or more angle meters may be used defining parallel or perpendicular measurement planes, for measuring angles between surfaces, and for estimating physical dimensions such as length, area or volume.