A faucet apparatus including a water discharger, a water supply path, an opening/closing valve, a transmitter, a receiver, and a controller, where the water discharger has a water discharge port discharging water, the water supply path guides the water from a water supply source to the water discharge port, the opening/closing valve opens and closes the water supply path, the transmitter transmits an optical signal, the receiver receives a reflected signal of the optical signal and outputs a received signal corresponding to the reflected signal, the controller detects an existence or absence of an object based on the received signal and controls opening and closing of the opening/closing valve according to a detection result of the object.

A faucet apparatus including a water discharger, a water supply path, an opening/closing valve, a transmitter, a receiver, and a controller, where the water discharger has a water discharge port discharging water, the water supply path guides the water from a water supply source to the water discharge port, the opening/closing valve opens and closes the water supply path, the transmitter transmits an optical signal, the receiver receives a reflected signal of the optical signal and outputs a received signal corresponding to the reflected signal, the controller detects an existence or absence of an object based on the received signal and controls opening and closing of the opening/closing valve according to a detection result of the object.

In an embodiment, a distance measuring device comprises an absolute distance measuring module, a tracking module, a two-axis rotating mechanism and a signal controlling and processing module to track an object and measure a distance between the distance measuring device and the object. The absolute distance measuring module measures an absolute distance between the distance measuring device and the object. The absolute distance measuring module and the tracking module are combined by using a dichroic beam splitter, and then all of them are further disposed in the two-axis rotating mechanism. When the object moves, a tracking optical path changes accordingly. A quadrant photodetector of the absolute distance measuring module detects the changes to avoid the distance measuring optical path being interrupted, and generates and transmits the signal to the signal controlling and processing module for controlling the two-axis rotating mechanism to rotate, thereby tracking the object.

A method for expanding a dynamic range of a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system is provided. The method comprises transmitting, using a light source of the LiDAR system, a sequence of pulse signals consisting of two or more increasingly stronger pulse signals. The method further comprises receiving, using a light detector of the LiDAR system, one or more returned pulse signals corresponding to the transmitted sequence of pulse signals. The one or more returned pulse signals are above the noise level of the light detector. The method further comprises selecting a returned pulse signal within the dynamic range of the light detector, identifying a transmitted pulse signal of the transmitted sequence that corresponds to the selected returned pulse signal, and calculating a distance based on the selected returned signal and the identified transmitted signal.

A method for expanding a dynamic range of a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system is provided. The method comprises transmitting, using a light source of the LiDAR system, a sequence of pulse signals consisting of two or more increasingly stronger pulse signals. The method further comprises receiving, using a light detector of the LiDAR system, one or more returned pulse signals corresponding to the transmitted sequence of pulse signals. The one or more returned pulse signals are above the noise level of the light detector. The method further comprises selecting a returned pulse signal within the dynamic range of the light detector, identifying a transmitted pulse signal of the transmitted sequence that corresponds to the selected returned pulse signal, and calculating a distance based on the selected returned signal and the identified transmitted signal.

A depth camera assembly (DCA) for depth sensing of a local area. The DCA includes a transmitter, a receiver, and a controller. The transmitter illuminates a local area with outgoing light in accordance with emission instructions. The transmitter includes a fine steering element and a coarse steering element. The fine steering element deflects one or more optical beams at a first deflection angle to generate one or more first order deflected scanning beams. The coarse steering element deflects the one or more first order deflected scanning beams at a second deflection angle to generate the outgoing light projected into the local area. The receiver captures one or more images of the local area including portions of the outgoing light reflected from the local area. The controller determines depth information for one or more objects in the local area based in part on the captured one or more images.

A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system encodes a frequency modulation (FM) modulated signal with a time of flight (TOF) signal as a power and frequency modulated signal. The system can emit the power and frequency modulated signal and apply processing to a signal reflection to generate a target point set. The target point set processing can include frequency processing to generate target points based on range and Doppler information, and TOF processing to provide TOF range information. The processing can include an FM processing path to extract FM signal information, and an AM processing path to extract the TOF signal information.

A multi-wavelength LIDAR system includes a first laser source that generates a first optical beam having a first wavelength and a second laser source that generates a second optical beam having a second wavelength. An optical element projects the first optical beam to form a first beam profile at a target plane and projects the second optical beam to form a second beam profile at the target plane. An optical receiver generates a first wavelength signal corresponding to the received reflected portion of the first beam profile and generates a second wavelength signal corresponding to the reflected portion of the second beam profile at the target plane. A controller generates a measurement point cloud from the first and second wavelength signals, wherein an angular resolution of the measurement point cloud depends on a relative position of the first and second beam profiles at the target plane.

A multi-wavelength LIDAR system includes a first laser source that generates a first optical beam having a first wavelength and a second laser source that generates a second optical beam having a second wavelength. An optical element projects the first optical beam to form a first beam profile at a target plane and projects the second optical beam to form a second beam profile at the target plane. An optical receiver generates a first wavelength signal corresponding to the received reflected portion of the first beam profile and generates a second wavelength signal corresponding to the reflected portion of the second beam profile at the target plane. A controller generates a measurement point cloud from the first and second wavelength signals, wherein an angular resolution of the measurement point cloud depends on a relative position of the first and second beam profiles at the target plane.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide a receiver of an optical sensing system, and an optical sensing method. The receiver includes a micro shutter array configured to sequentially receive a series of laser beams returned from an environment at a plurality of time points. The micro shutter array sequentially opens a portion of the micro shutter array at a specified location at each time point, to allow a respective laser beam to pass through the micro shutter array at that time point and to reflect the ambient light by a remaining portion of the micro shutter array at that time point. The receiver further includes a photodetector configured to detect the laser beam that passes through the micro shutter array at each time point to obtain point cloud data and an image sensor configured to receive the ambient light reflected by the remaining portion of the micro shutter array to obtain image data. The receiver also includes a controller configured to fuse the point cloud data obtained from the photodetector with the image data obtained from the image sensor.