The present disclosure generally pertains to time-of-flight circuitry configured to: apply a set of detection time intervals to at least one light detection event for determining a point of time of the at least one light detection event, wherein the set of detection time intervals has a predetermined detection pattern encoding predetermined points of time.

There is provided a system and method for detecting a distance to an object. The method comprises providing a lighting system having at least one pulse width modulated visible-light source for illumination of a field of view; emitting an illumination signal for illuminating the field of view for a duration of time y using the visible-light source at a time t; integrating a reflection energy for a first time period from a time t−x to a time t+x; determining a first integration value for the first time period; integrating the reflection energy for a second time period from a time t+y−x to a time t+y+x; determining a second integration value for the second time period; calculating a difference value between the first integration value and the second integration value; determining a propagation delay value proportional to the difference value; determining the distance to the object from the propagation delay value.

There is provided a system and method for detecting a distance to an object. The method comprises providing a lighting system having at least one pulse width modulated visible-light source for illumination of a field of view; emitting an illumination signal for illuminating the field of view for a duration of time y using the visible-light source at a time t; integrating a reflection energy for a first time period from a time t−x to a time t+x; determining a first integration value for the first time period; integrating the reflection energy for a second time period from a time t+y−x to a time t+y+x; determining a second integration value for the second time period; calculating a difference value between the first integration value and the second integration value; determining a propagation delay value proportional to the difference value; determining the distance to the object from the propagation delay value.

There is provided a method for optically scanning a region according to a plurality of scanning directions, comprising: receiving an interleave sequence defining a scanning order for the plurality of scanning directions; sequentially propagating optical pulses according to the interleave sequence; detecting pulse echoes corresponding to a reflection of the propagated optical pulses on at least one object present within the region; and outputting the detected pulse echoes. There is further described a computer-implemented method for correcting a temporal slippage of an optical echo.

A distance measurement image pickup apparatus has two measurement periods. In a first distance measurement period, short pulsed light (1T) is irradiated, and exposure is performed in a plurality of exposure periods (A, B, and C) in which exposure timings are shifted. In each exposure period, an exposure gate is opened a plurality of times to perform repetitive exposure, and a first non-exposure period is provided from when a last exposure gate is closed until subsequent pulsed light is irradiated. In a second distance measurement period, long pulsed light (4T) is irradiated, and exposure is performed in a plurality of exposure periods (A, B, and C) in which exposure timings are shifted. In each exposure period, exposure is performed by opening the exposure gate only once, and a second non-exposure period is provided from when a last exposure gate is closed until subsequent pulsed light is irradiated.

Techniques are described to for improving a resolution of a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system. A receiver circuit of a LIDAR system can sample a reflection signal from an object in response to a transmitted light pulse. A controller can determine a curve fit to the received samples and, based on a peak value of the curve fit, determine a precise location of the object.

A lidar system is described for a vehicle for scanning a surrounding area of the vehicle using laser beams, including a transmitting device having a laser beam source which is designed to emit laser beams into the surrounding area of the vehicle, a receiving device having at least one detector for detecting the laser beams reflected in the surrounding area and having at least one first filter that is connectible in front of the detector, wherein the at least one first filter is designed as an intensity filter for specifically absorbing background radiation. A method for operating a lidar system and a computer program are also described.

Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure address challenges of the existing technology by enabling lidar-assisted identification and characterization of visibility-reducing media (VRM) such as fog, rain, snow, dust in autonomous vehicle applications, using lidar sensing. VRM can be identified and characterized using a variety of techniques, including analyzing a spatial distribution of low-intensity lidar returns, detecting pulse elongation of VRM-returns associated with reflection from VRM, determining intensity of VRM-returns, determining reduction of intensity of returns from various reference objects, and other techniques.

Laser scanner monitors region in front of an opening. Monitoring region is delimited by a frame, in front of which an edge region is located. Propagation time sensing means determines position of an object in the monitoring region by a propagation time measurement of laser pulse, an evaluation unit being provided, by means of which first object information is produced, whether an object was sensed by the propagation time measurement. An intensity sensing means evaluating received laser pulse with respect to the intensity thereof and the sensed intensity is compared with a reference intensity stored in a memory unit. Second object information being provided in the event of deviation beyond a certain threshold value, whether an object is located in the hazard edge region on the basis of the intensity deviation. A “safety signal” generated by the evaluation unit if first or second object information is positive.

A light signal detection device includes a light receiving optical system configured to receive a reflection signal reflected from an object when irradiation light emitted from an irradiation unit hits the object and reflects from the object; and circuitry configured to binarize the received reflection signal using a first threshold value, based on a determination of whether the reflection signal is equal to or greater than the first threshold value; binarize the received reflection signal using a second threshold value set with a given value similar to a noise signal value, based on a determination of whether the reflection signal is equal to or greater than the second threshold value; and measure a time difference between a time of emitting the irradiation light from the irradiation unit and a time of receiving a reflection signal equal to or greater than the first threshold value or the second threshold value.