A signal processing module for use with a receiver for receiving echoes of an emitted signal. The signal processing module comprises sensing logic for sensing presence of a being or object in a space using echoes of the signal as reflected from the being or object, wherein the echoes are received with an associated frequency band. The signal processing module further comprises control logic for detecting disturbance having potential to compromise said sensing, wherein the signal processing module is configured to detect this disturbance by listening for an unwanted signal in a region of the spectrum outside the frequency band of the echoes, and to adapt the sensing in dependence on the detected disturbance.

A wideband sonar receiver is provided that includes: a selectable bandpass filter adapted to filter a received sonar signal to produce a filtered signal and a correlator adapted to correlate the baseband samples with baseband replica samples to provide a correlated signal. In addition, the wideband sonar receiver may include a shaping filter to shape unshaped received pulses. Finally, a variety of sonar processing algorithms are described with regard to reducing clutter and interference, target detection, and bottom detection.

An anomaly detection device includes a processor and a non-transitory memory that stores a program. The processor executes the program to operate an anomaly detection device as an obtainer that obtains a first object detection result generated by a first object detection device that is included in a first apparatus which is a vehicle and detects an object in the vicinity of the first apparatus and a second object detection result generated by a second object detection device that is included in a second apparatus in the vicinity of the first apparatus and detects an object in the vicinity of the second apparatus; a determiner that determines whether at least one of the first apparatus or the second apparatus is being attacked, by comparing the first object detection result and the second object detection result; and an outputter that outputs a result of determination by the determiner.

A sensor device may include a signal generator circuit configured to generate a supplemental signal that is combined with an ultrasonic reception voltage signal generated by an ultrasonic receiving element in response to received ultrasonic waves. The sensor device may comprise an ultrasonic receiving circuit configured to receive the combination of the ultrasonic reception voltage signal and the supplemental signal, and generate a detection signal that indicates when the space is occupied. The sensor device may also comprise a control circuit configured to receive the detection signal and detect an occupancy condition in the space in response to the detection signal. The combination of the supplemental signal with the ultrasonic reception voltage signal may ensure that the magnitudes of signals processed by the ultrasonic receiving circuit are large enough that the ultrasonic receiving circuit may appropriately generate the detection signal and the control circuit may detect the occupancy condition.

Multiple ultrasonic sensors operate within a shared space such that each ultrasonic sensor receives, in addition to reflections of its own broadcast signal, broadcast signals from other sensors. The ultrasonic sensors encode information about their respective broadcast signals, such as timing of broadcasts and pulse patterns, within their broadcast signals. The ultrasonic sensors utilize this information to avoid or limit receiving broadcast signals from other sensors during their respective receive windows. The ultrasonic sensors may also scan a channel to identify other sensors and their broadcast characteristics, and from that information, select and optimize their own broadcast characteristics.

A sensor device may include a signal generator circuit configured to generate a supplemental signal that is combined with an ultrasonic reception voltage signal generated by an ultrasonic receiving element in response to received ultrasonic waves. The sensor device may comprise an ultrasonic receiving circuit configured to receive the combination of the ultrasonic reception voltage signal and the supplemental signal, and generate a detection signal that indicates when the space is occupied. The sensor device may also comprise a control circuit configured to receive the detection signal and detect an occupancy condition in the space in response to the detection signal. The combination of the supplemental signal with the ultrasonic reception voltage signal may ensure that the magnitudes of signals processed by the ultrasonic receiving circuit are large enough that the ultrasonic receiving circuit may appropriately generate the detection signal and the control circuit may detect the occupancy condition.

A method for transmitting data from an ultrasonic sensor to a computer system includes forming a feature vector signal from an electric reception signal; recognizing signal objects in the reception signal and classifying the signal objects according to predetermined signal object classes. At least one object parameter allocated to the signal object and one symbol for the signal object class are allocated to each signal object, or for each signal object, at least one signal object parameter and a symbol object are determined. The method further includes transmitting the symbol and the at least one signal object parameter to the computer system as data of a recognized signal object, wherein the transmission of the at least one symbol of the recognized signal object class includes a transmission of a signal object class of a signal object including a predefined temporal sequence of other signal objects.

A method for transmitting data from an ultrasonic sensor to a computer system includes forming a feature vector signal from an electric reception signal; recognizing signal objects in the reception signal and classifying the signal objects according to predetermined signal object classes. The signal objects are forms or sequences of forms. At least one object parameter allocated to the signal object and one symbol for the signal object class are allocated to each signal object, or for each signal object, at least one signal object parameter and a symbol object are determined. The method further includes determining a chirp value as an allocated signal object parameter. The method further includes transmitting the symbol and the at least one signal object parameter to the computer system as data of a recognized signal object, wherein the at least one signal object parameter includes a signal object parameter indicating the chirp value.

A method for transmitting data from an ultrasonic sensor to a computer system includes forming a feature vector signal from an electric reception signal; recognizing signal objects in the reception signal and classifying the signal objects according to predetermined signal object classes. The signal objects are forms or sequences of forms. At least one object parameter allocated to the signal object and one symbol for the signal object class are allocated to each signal object, or for each signal object, at least one signal object parameter and a symbol object are determined. The method further includes transmitting the symbol and the at least one signal object parameter to the computer system as data of a recognized signal object.

An apparatus for detecting diffuse reflection noise with respect to ultrasonic sensor values is disclosed. The apparatus includes a plurality of ultrasonic sensors; and a processor including a diffuse reflection noise detector for detecting diffuse reflection noise in sensor values obtained from the ultrasonic sensors. The diffuse reflection noise detector is configured to detect single-sensor-based diffuse reflection noise in obtained sensor data, and is configured to detect multi-sensor-based diffuse reflection noise when the single-sensor-based diffuse reflection noise is not detected.