It is intended to promote enhancement of performance of acquiring a depth image. A depth image acquiring apparatus includes a light emitting diode, a TOF sensor, and a filter. The light emitting diode irradiates modulated light toward a detection area becoming an area in which a depth image is to be acquired to detect a distance. The TOF sensor receives incident light into which the light irradiated from the light emitting diode is reflected by an object lying in the detection area to become, thereby outputting a signal used to produce the depth image. The filter passes more light having a wavelength in a predetermined pass bandwidth than light having a wavelength in a pass bandwidth other than the predetermined pass bandwidth of the light made incident toward the TOF sensor. In this case, at least one of the light emitting diode, the TOF sensor, or arrangement of the filter is controlled in accordance with a temperature of the light emitting diode or the TOF sensor. The present technique, for example, can be applied to a system for with international search report acquiring a depth image by using a TOF system.

It is intended to promote enhancement of performance of acquiring a depth image. A depth image acquiring apparatus includes a light emitting diode, a TOF sensor, and a filter. The light emitting diode irradiates modulated light toward a detection area becoming an area in which a depth image is to be acquired to detect a distance. The TOF sensor receives incident light into which the light irradiated from the light emitting diode is reflected by an object lying in the detection area to become, thereby outputting a signal used to produce the depth image. The filter passes more light having a wavelength in a predetermined pass bandwidth than light having a wavelength in a pass bandwidth other than the predetermined pass bandwidth of the light made incident toward the TOF sensor. In this case, at least one of the light emitting diode, the TOF sensor, or arrangement of the filter is controlled in accordance with a temperature of the light emitting diode or the TOF sensor. The present technique, for example, can be applied to a system for with international search report acquiring a depth image by using a TOF system.

A sensor lens assembly includes a cylindrical sensor body including a lower surface, a sensor lens surface, and a side surface extending between the lower surface and an outer edge of the sensor lens surface, a sensor enclosed within the cylindrical sensor body and adjacent to the sensor lens surface, and a nozzle configured to deliver a fluid near a center point of the sensor lens surface. The sensor lens surface is concave and rotates relative to the side surface of the cylindrical sensor body such that centrifugal force causes the fluid to form a film on the sensor lens surface that acts as a barrier, cushion, and particle collecting medium on the sensor lens surface.

An apparatus includes a time-of-flight (TOF) sensor system that has an illuminator operable to emit pulses of light toward an object outside the apparatus. The illuminator is operable in a first mode in which the illuminator emits pulses having a first width and a second mode in which the illuminator emits pulses having a second width longer than the first width. The TOF sensor system further includes a photodetector operable to detect light produced by the illuminator and reflected by the object back toward the apparatus. An electronic control device is operable to control emission of light by the illuminator and is operable to estimate a distance to the object based on a time elapsed between an emission of one or more of the pulses by the illuminator and detection of the reflected light by the photodetector.

A solid-state lidar device comprises a laser generator, an optical lens arrangement having a focal length and providing a rear focal plane, a solid-state sensing array positioned at the rear focal plane of the optical lens arrangement having a first sensor and a second sensor spaced from each other by a first sensor distance and at least one processor. The processor is configured to obtain a measured distance of the target from a pulsed time-of-flight measurement utilizing the laser generator and at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor of the solid-state sensing array and obtain at least one spatial coordinate for the target from the measured distance using a calibration parameter indicative of the ratio of the first sensor distance and the focal length.

A solid-state lidar device comprises a laser generator, an optical lens arrangement having a focal length and providing a rear focal plane, a solid-state sensing array positioned at the rear focal plane of the optical lens arrangement having a first sensor and a second sensor spaced from each other by a first sensor distance and at least one processor. The processor is configured to obtain a measured distance of the target from a pulsed time-of-flight measurement utilizing the laser generator and at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor of the solid-state sensing array and obtain at least one spatial coordinate for the target from the measured distance using a calibration parameter indicative of the ratio of the first sensor distance and the focal length.

A sensor aiming device includes: a target positional relationship processing unit for outputting positional relationship information of first and second targets; a sensor observation information processing unit configured to convert the observation result of the first and second targets into a predetermined unified coordinate system according to a coordinate conversion parameter, perform time synchronization at a predetermined timing, and extract first target information indicating a position of the first target and second target information indicating a position of the second target; a position estimation unit configured to estimate a position of the second target using the first target information, the second target information, and the positional relationship information; and a sensor correction amount estimation unit configured to calculate a deviation amount of the second sensor using the second target information and an estimated position of the second target and estimate a correction amount.

Systems and methods are described for monitoring detection of objects in a sensor. The system can generate an occupancy array based on scene data corresponding to a scene of a vehicle. The array can include points that represent a location within the environment of the vehicle and an occupancy value that indicates whether an object is detected at that location. The system can modify an occupancy value of at least one point in the array and identify at least one static object miss based on a group of occupancy values of a group of points in the array.

A distance measurement system includes a distance measurement device and an external processing device. Here, the distance measurement device receives reflected light from a subject for a plurality of exposure periods in a frame in which irradiation light is emitted, switches a plurality of distance calculation expressions according to an amount of charge measured for each exposure period, and calculates a measured distance to the subject from the amount of charge measured for each exposure period. The external processing device acquires the measured distance from the distance measurement device and performs data processing. Then, the external processing device predicts a measured distance including a distance error caused by an influence of multipath. The external processing device generates a correction expression for correcting the measured distance. The external processing device corrects the measured distance acquired from the distance measurement device using the correction expression.

According to one aspect, a lidar system is a lidar system which includes one set of mechanical, e.g., optical, components, and two or more sets of electrical and/or software components. The beams which are provided by the optical components are effectively alternated between a first and second sets of electrical and/or software components. The redundancy provided by the first and second sets of electrical and/or software components allows the lidar system to remain operational in the event that one set of electrical and/or software components becomes non-operational.