Automotive radar systems may employ a reconfigurable connection of antennas to radar transmitters and/or receivers. An illustrative embodiment of an automotive radar system includes: a radar transmitter; a radar receiver; and a digital signal processor coupled to the radar receiver to detect reflections of a signal transmitted by the radar transmitter and to derive signal measurements therefrom. At least one of the radar transmitter and the radar receiver are switchable to provide the digital signal processor with signals from each of multiple combinations of transmit antenna and receive antenna.

This document describes spatial and temporal processing of ultrasonic-sensor detections for mapping in vehicle-parking-assist functions. Specifically, spatial intersections, which are determined from a pair of neighboring ultrasonic sensors having ultrasonic detections at substantially the same time, can address latency issues associated with temporal intersections and can be determined without the vehicle moving. Temporal intersections can address situations when one sensor of the pair of neighboring ultrasonic sensors has an ultrasonic detection while the other sensor does not. Using both the spatial and temporal intersections provides high accuracy for angular information, which enables enhanced mapping and efficient performance of vehicle-parking-assist functions.

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.

In one form, a method for acoustic distance measurement includes generating an acoustic signal with an acoustic transducer at a first time. A pulse is detected with the acoustic transducer in response to the acoustic signal encountering an obstacle within a predetermined distance. Detecting the pulse includes detecting a second time relative to the first time when a magnitude of the pulse rises above a predetermined threshold, and detecting a peak magnitude of the pulse. A correction ratio is determined as a ratio of the predetermined threshold to the peak magnitude of the pulse. A correction time is determined in response to the correction ratio. A corrected time-of-flight is determined by adjusting the second time by the compensation time.

A method, device and computer program product for controlling the device by tracking a movement of a hand or other objects. The device receives acoustic signals. At least a portion of the received signals are transformed into two-dimensional sinusoids whose frequencies are proportional to an angle-of-arrival (AoA) and a propagation distance of the reflected signals. An AoA-di stance profile is derived based on signals received from the object by evaluating frequencies of the two-dimensional sinusoids. Then, an AoA-di stance pair is derived from the AoA-di stance profile. A current location of the object is determined based on the estimated AoA-di stance pair. The device then performs a command in response to detecting that the user moved to perform the command based on prior and current locations of the object.

Automotive radar systems may employ a reconfigurable connection of antennas to radar transmitters and/or receivers. An illustrative embodiment of an automotive radar system includes: a radar transmitter; a radar receiver; and a digital signal processor coupled to the radar receiver to detect reflections of a signal transmitted by the radar transmitter and to derive signal measurements therefrom. At least one of the radar transmitter and the radar receiver are switchable to provide the digital signal processor with signals from each of multiple combinations of transmit antenna and receive antenna.

A driving support apparatus according to the present disclosure includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory and a sound wave sensor. The hardware processor is configured to select, as a transmission and reception scheme, either a pulse scheme or a spread spectrum modulation scheme, and control the sound wave sensor with the selected transmission and reception scheme. When the spread spectrum modulation scheme is selected as the transmission and reception scheme, the hardware processor causes the sound wave sensor to successively transmit and receive sound waves by using the spread spectrum modulation scheme.

Apparatus and methods for enhanced wireless determination of a position and direction of a smart device are describe which support the display of a virtual tag upon a user interface of the smart device. Wireless transceivers controlled by the smart device communicate with reference point transceivers to generate data sufficient to determine relative positions of the wireless transceivers and a direction of interest. Operation of LIDAR may be operative to verify the position and direction of the Smart Device as well as a topography of the environment.

Apparatus and methods for enhanced wireless determination of a position and direction of a smart device are describe which support the display of a virtual tag upon a user interface of the smart device. Wireless transceivers controlled by the smart device communicate with reference point transceivers to generate data sufficient to determine relative positions of the wireless transceivers and a direction of interest. Operation of LIDAR may be operative to verify the position and direction of the Smart Device as well as a topography of the environment.

Time of flight between two or more ultrasonic transceivers is measured using known delays. First and second transceivers are duty cycled, each having a respective receive period that is less than a measurement period during which the transceivers are configured to receive transmissions. An ultrasonic trigger pulse is transmitted by the first transceiver. The second transceiver, upon receiving the trigger pulse, transmits an ultrasonic response pulse after a first predefined delay time that is known to the first transceiver and greater than the receive period of the second transceiver. Subsequently, the first transceiver receives the ultrasonic response pulse and determines a receive time. The first transceiver determines the distance between the first transceiver and the second transceiver from a speed of sound, an elapsed time between the time of transmission of the trigger pulse and the receive time, and the first predetermine delay time.