A sensing device includes a light source, a light-receiving device including at least one light-receiving element that performs photoelectric conversion, and a processing circuit that controls the light source and the light-receiving device. The processing circuit causes the light source to emit light to a scene at least once, causes the light-receiving device to receive reflected light in each of a plurality of exposure periods, the reflected light being resulting from the emitted light, generates, based on received-light data from the light-receiving device, luminance data that indicates distributions of amounts of reflected light corresponding to the respective exposure periods and that are used for generating distance data for the scene, and outputs the luminance data and timing data indicating timings of the respective exposure periods.

A distance measuring device includes the following, an emitting unit; a receiving unit; a received signal detector; and a signal processor. The signal processor controls emitting of the signal by the emitting unit and starts counting time, calculates received timing when the receiving unit receives the signal based on the digital signal output by the received signal detector, and calculates a distance to the object based on transmitting time of the signal. As for a distance, etc., the signal processor considers the distance. Etc. to be a valid value when a condition that the calculated distance, etc. is no longer than a predetermined reference distance, etc. is satisfied, and when the condition is not satisfied, the signal processor considers the distance, etc. to be an invalid value.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide a system for analyzing noise data for light detection and ranging (LiDAR). The system includes a communication interface configured to sequentially receive noise data of the LiDAR in time windows, at least one storage device configured to store instructions, and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations. Exemplary operations include determining an estimated noise value of a first time window using the noise data received in the first time window and determining an instant noise value of a second time window using the noise data received in the second time window. The second time window is immediately subsequent to the first time window. The operations also include determining an estimated noise value of the second time window by aggregating the estimated noise value of the first time window and the instant noise value of the second time window.

Provided are a sensor device and a detection method. The sensor device includes: a light emitting unit transmitting a transmission signal toward a target; a light receiving unit receiving a reflected signal of the transmission signal and generating a binarized signal; a TDC delay line measurement unit and a waveform integration unit generating waveform data indicating temporal changes in the binarized signal and integrating the waveform data to generate integrated waveform data; a stage number calculation unit and a distance conversion unit calculating a near-side distance value and a far-side distance value from intersections of the integrated waveform data and a high threshold value and a low threshold value, respectively; and a determination unit determining whether the target is present on the basis of a distance value calculated from the near-side distance value and the far-side distance value and on the basis of a predetermined distance threshold value.

A Time of Flight (TOF) system includes an incrementing circuit and a plurality of pixels. Each pixel includes a plurality of detectors configured to output respective detection signals responsive to detection of a plurality of photons incident thereon and a shared memory configured to store a respective count of the photons incident on each of the plurality of detectors. The incrementing circuit is configured to update the respective count for each of the plurality of detectors in the shared memory based on the respective detection signals.

A LIDAR system has a laser emission unit configured to generate a plurality of laser beams. The system has a scanning unit configured to receive the plurality of laser beams. The common scanning unit projects the plurality of laser beams toward a field of view of the LIDAR system. The system has at least one processor. The processor is programmed to cause the scanning unit to scan the field of view of the LIDAR system by directing the plurality of beams along a first plurality of scan lines traversing the FOV. The processor is also programmed to displace the plurality of laser beams from a first set of locations associated with the first plurality of scan lines to a second set of locations associated with a second plurality of scan lines. Further, the processor is programmed to direct the plurality of laser beams along the second plurality of scan lines.

Methods for detecting a time-of-flight include: emitting a light pulse toward a target; detecting a presence of light received at a light detector; obtaining a delay time between emitting the light pulse and detecting the presence of the light at the light detector; responsive to obtaining the delay time, (a) updating an overall intensity counter that counts a total number of delay times that have been obtained and (b) updating a delay time counter out of a plurality of different delay time counters, wherein each delay time counter counts a total number of delay times obtained that have a corresponding delay time value; and monitoring a threshold of each delay time counter to determine whether a threshold value is exceeded.

A proximity detection system for a mobile device. The system includes an infrared emitter to emit infrared light, an infrared detector to detect the infrared light after reflection from a target and provide a detector signal; and a signal processing subsystem. The signal processing subsystem is configured to control the proximity detection system into a first, detect mode for detecting proximity of the target as the target approaches the mobile device, and after detection of the target to control the proximity detection system into a second, release mode for detecting movement of the target out of proximity to the mobile device. The signal processing subsystem also controls the proximity detection system such that, contrary to conventional hysteresis, for a given proximity of the target the detector signal reduces when the mode switches from the detect mode to the release mode, thus increasing reliability.

A distance image capturing apparatus has a light source unit that emits an intermittent light pulse into a space, a light receiving unit that includes a plurality of pixels each having a photoelectric conversion device and electric charge accumulating units, and a distance image processing unit. The distance image processing unit acquires an electric charge amount distributed by a predetermined fixed number of times and accumulated in the accumulating units. The distance image processing unit acquires electric charge amounts accumulated in the accumulating units with different number of times of electric charge distribution as one set and selects one of a first electric charge amount with a larger number of electric charge distribution and a second electric charge amount for acquiring a distance from a subject based on a comparison result with a threshold.

An object detection device includes: a transmission unit transmitting a first transmission wave; a reception unit receiving a first reception wave reflected by an object; a signal processing unit sampling a first processing target signal according to the first reception wave and acquiring a difference signal based on a difference between the first processing target signal for at least one sample at a certain detection timing, and the first processing target signal for a plurality of samples in at least one of first and second periods; a threshold setting unit setting a threshold as a comparison target with the value of the difference signal, based on variation in the values of the first processing target signal for the plurality of samples; and a detection unit detecting information about the object at the detection timing based on a comparison result between the value of the difference signal and the threshold.