An optical sensor comprises a light-emitting element configured to emit light in a region where an object is present; a light-receiving element configured to receive reflected light from the object; a generation unit configured to generate a histogram indicating a relationship between a time from emission of the light by the light-emitting element to reception of the reflected light by the light-receiving element and an intensity of the reflected light received by the light-receiving element; a first calculation unit configured to calculate skewness of the histogram; and a second calculation unit configured to calculate a distance between the optical sensor and the object with reference to the histogram and the skewness.

A method for Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensing of a scene is provided. The method includes performing, by a ToF sensor including at least one photo-sensitive sensor pixel, a plurality of first ToF measurements using a first modulation frequency in order to obtain first measurement values. A respective correlation function of each of the plurality of first ToF measurements is periodic and exhibits an increasing amplitude over distance within a measurement range of the ToF sensor. The method further includes determining a distance to an object in the scene based on the first measurement values. Performing the plurality of first ToF measurements includes for at least one of the plurality of first ToF measurements controlling the photo-sensitive sensor pixel to selectively store, in at least two charge storages of the photo-sensitive sensor pixel, part of charge carriers generated in the photo-sensitive sensor pixel during the at least one of the plurality of first ToF measurements by incident light. In addition, performing the plurality of first ToF measurements includes for the at least one of the plurality of first ToF measurements controlling the photo-sensitive sensor pixel to selectively prevent another part of the charge carriers generated during the at least one of the plurality of first ToF measurements from reaching the at least two charge storages.

A sensing system is disclosed for performing distance measurements. The sensing system may include an emitter configured to emit electromagnetic radiation modulated at a known frequency. The sensing system may further include a detector configured to sample incident electromagnetic radiation at the known frequency, convert the sampled electromagnetic radiation into charge carriers, and collect the charge carriers in a storage component to produce an electronic signal. The sensing system may include a processor configured to determine a correction by applying a non-linear polynomial function to the electronic signal.

In an optical detection system, a reference waveform can be used for automated analysis of a received waveform. The reference waveform can be adjusted (e.g., distorted) using information about one or more of a receive channel configuration or other aspects of the receive channel signal, facilitating a more effective comparison between a received impulse and the reference waveform. Such a comparison can be used in a time-to-digital conversion (TDC) technique, such as to provide delay values that can then be used to determine a distance between the illuminated target and an optical transceiver. Other techniques can be used to enhance range accuracy or resolution, such as using automated techniques for control of one or more of receive channel gain, summing or averaging (aggregation of received signals), or bias compensation (e.g., DC balancing).

An object detection device and an operating method thereof are provided. The object detection device detects light and outputs a received signal, which is an electrical signal, time-delays a part of the received signal with respect to a rest of the received signal, converts the rest of the received signal into a digital signal, converts the time-delayed part of the received signal into one or more time-delayed digital signals, and determines a distance to an object based on the digital signal and the one or more time-delayed digital signals.

A detection device, characterized in that a light emitting module (110) comprises at least two emitting areas, and a light receiving module (130) comprises at least two receiving areas corresponding to the light emitting module (110); a processing module (120) can generate a first instruction to be electrically connected to all emitting units, so that all the emitting units simultaneously output emitted light, and all the receiving units of the light receiving module (130) correspond to the emitting units on a one-to-one basis; and the processing module (120) can also generate an instruction different from the first instruction to only be electrically connected to some of the emitting units, so that the light emitting module (110) outputs emitted light once or more than once, and the light receiving module (130) obtains reflected light information of a target area once or more than once. The self-adaptive emitting method focuses energy on a smaller field angle, thereby improving the power density; and all or some of the emitting units emit light once or multiple times, thereby adapting to different measurement scenarios and expanding application scenarios of the device.

A method for optical distance measurement is suggested, wherein a first distribution of times-of-flight of light of detected photons of transmitted measurement pulses is determined, which is stored in a first memory area of a memory unit. The first distribution of times-of-flight of light is assigned to time intervals of a first plurality of time intervals and frequency portions of the first distribution above a predetermined cut-off frequency are reduced or suppressed by means of a low pass filter in a reduction step, so that a second distribution of times-of-flight of light is generated. The second distribution is assigned to time intervals of a second plurality of time intervals and the blocking frequency of the low pass filter is selected to be smaller than or equal to half of the reciprocal value of a smallest interval width of the second plurality of time intervals.

A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system may include a laser and a plurality of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) that are triggered by laser light that reflects off a target scene. The LIDAR system may be operated in a global shutter mode, so each of the SPADs may include its own time-to-digital conversion circuitry. To reduce the area required to implement the circuitry for each diode, the circuitry may be operated using cyclic histogramming, in which a first bit of a time-of-flight value may be determined using a first time period that corresponds to the emission of the laser light and the detection by the SPADs, a second bit of the time-of-flight value may be determined using a second time period that is half of the first time period, etc. In this way, the circuitry may accurately determine the signal peak while requiring less area and memory requirements.

This application discloses a time-of-flight measurement method, apparatus, and system. The method includes obtaining histogram data of a target object. The histogram data includes m counts, m is an integer greater than 1, and each of the m counts is associated with a time. The method also includes performing digital filtering on the m counts to obtain m filtered values respectively corresponding to the m counts, and determining a time of flight of the target object based on a time corresponding to a peak value in the m filtered values.

Methods, devices, systems, and computer program products for estimating object reflectivity in a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system are disclosed. The method, for example, includes receiving LIDAR data for a plurality of LIDAR scan cycles. The method also includes generating a dataset from the LIDAR data by accumulating the recorded return signals over the plurality of scan cycles. A data feature associated with an object is identified in the dataset, and one or more parameters of the data feature are identified. An estimated reflectivity of the object may then be determined based on the one or more parameters.