The present technology relates to a distance measuring sensor, a distance measuring system, and electronic equipment adapted to change light emission conditions at high speed.

The distance measuring sensor includes a pixel array section configured to have pixels arrayed two-dimensionally, each of the pixels receiving reflected light from an object under irradiation light from a lighting apparatus and outputting a detection signal corresponding to an amount of the received light, and a control section configured to control a light emission condition for the lighting apparatus according to an operation of each of the pixels in the pixel array section. This technology can be applied, for example, to a distance measuring system for measuring the distance to a subject being imaged.

Disclosed are Geiger-mode avalanche-photodiode-based LiDAR systems and methods that interrogate a detection region with a periodic series of optical pulses whose reflections are detected via a receiver comprising multiple Geiger-mode avalanche-photodiode-based pixels. The pixels of the receiver are configured to asynchronously disarm and rearm after absorption of a reflection. As a result, each pixel can detect multiple reflections of the same optical pulse during a single detection frame whose duration is defined by the periodicity of the series of optical pulses. Furthermore, each pixel can store time-of-flight data for each of multiple reflections detected during a detection frame. Each individual pixel of the receiver, therefore, is not blinded and inoperative for the remainder of a detection frame once it detects a first reflection.

A Semi-Active Laser sensor for determining a line-of-site to a target includes: a receiver for receiving a plurality of target pulses; a processor for starting a target track for pulses that cross a noise threshold opening a pulse gate within the target track; and for every laser pulse received within the pulse gate crossing the noise threshold, determining a time index relative to the pulse gate center; and a memory for storing the pulses that cross the noise threshold and their respective time index, wherein the processor further temporally offsets the stored pulses based on their corresponding time indexes, sums the offset pulses together to generate a summed pulse signal, and determines the line-of-sight error to the target from the summed pulse signal.

A management system includes a monitoring device and at least one detection device. The monitoring device projects detection light for detecting a monitoring target, and identifies the monitoring target based on a detection pattern of reflected light of the detection light. The detection device is installed on the monitoring target. The detection device receives the detection light projected by the monitoring device, and reflects the detection light at a timing set to the detection device in a predetermined period starting from a timing at which the detection light is received.

A highly reliable determination device to determine the distance to an object even if general-purpose optical distance measurement modules or the like are used. The determination device determines that an abnormality has occurred in at least one of a plurality of optical distance measurement modules when the distances respectively indicated by the optical distance measurement modules deviate from each other by a predetermined length or more.

A highly reliable determination device to determine the distance to an object even if general-purpose optical distance measurement modules or the like are used. The determination device determines that an abnormality has occurred in at least one of a plurality of optical distance measurement modules when the distances respectively indicated by the optical distance measurement modules deviate from each other by a predetermined length or more.

A module for a lidar sensor, including: a light-transmitting path having a movable mirror and a light source; and a transmitting-side microlens set-up, which is situated downstream from the light transmitting path; the light transmitting path being configured to illuminate a first microlens of the microlens set-up on the input side, using a first spot of a predefined diameter of a first light beam; the predefined diameter of the spot of the first light beam being greater than a diameter of the first microlens, and a distance of an edge of the first microlens to edges of adjacent microlenses inside of the transmitting-side microlens set-up corresponding to a difference between the predefined diameter of the spot of the first light beam and the diameter of the first microlens.

A light source may illuminate a scene that is obscured by fog. Light may reflect back to a time-resolved light sensor. For instance, the light sensor may comprise avalanche photodiodes that are not single-photon sensitive. The light sensor may perform a raster scan. The imaging system may determine reflectance and depth of the fog-obscured target. The imaging system may perform a probabilistic algorithm that exploits the fact that times of arrival of photons reflected from fog have a Gamma distribution that is different than the Gaussian distribution of times of arrival of photons reflected from the target. The imaging system may adjust frame rate locally depending on local density of fog, as indicated by a local Gamma distribution determined in a prior step. The imaging system may perform one or more of spatial regularization, temporal regularization, and deblurring.

A light source may illuminate a scene that is obscured by fog. Light may reflect back to a time-resolved light sensor. For instance, the light sensor may comprise avalanche photodiodes that are not single-photon sensitive. The light sensor may perform a raster scan. The imaging system may determine reflectance and depth of the fog-obscured target. The imaging system may perform a probabilistic algorithm that exploits the fact that times of arrival of photons reflected from fog have a Gamma distribution that is different than the Gaussian distribution of times of arrival of photons reflected from the target. The imaging system may adjust frame rate locally depending on local density of fog, as indicated by a local Gamma distribution determined in a prior step. The imaging system may perform one or more of spatial regularization, temporal regularization, and deblurring.

A machine vision system comprises a camera configured to generate one or more images of a field of regard of the camera, a lidar system, and a processor. The lidar system includes a laser configured to emit light, where the emitted light is directed toward a region within the field of regard of the camera and a receiver configured to detect light returned from the emitted light. The processor is configured to receive an indication of a location based on the returned light and determine, based on the one or more images generated by the camera, whether the indication of the location is associated with a spurious return.