A method of measuring a distance using a time of flight sensor comprising a substantially transparent cover covering a light emitter and one or more photodetectors. The method comprises emitting a series of pulses of light from the light emitter; and using the one or more photodetectors to obtain a distribution of times at which at least one photodetector of the one or more photodetectors detected photons after each emission of the series of pulses of light. If the distribution of times comprises only a single peak, the method further comprises analysing the single peak to determine if the single peak includes counts of photons reflected from a target. If the single peak includes counts of photons reflected from a target, the method further comprises measuring the separation between a reference time and a point of the single peak.

An optical measurement device includes at least a multi-frequency laser configured to simultaneously generate a frequency-fixed carrier and at least one frequency-modulated subcarrier, an optical branching element, a dual frequency beat signal generator, a difference signal generator, and an arithmetic processing unit. Either the carrier or the subcarrier within the output light of the multi-frequency laser is used as first measurement light and either the carrier or the subcarrier having a frequency different from that of the first measurement light is used as second measurement light. The dual frequency beat signal generator separates and outputs a first complex beat signal derived from the first measurement light and a second complex beat signal derived from the second measurement light. The difference signal generator outputs a difference signal between the first complex beat signal and the second complex beat signal.

A computer-implemented method for predicting properties of a plurality of objects in a vicinity of a vehicle includes multiple steps that can be carried out by computer hardware components. The method includes determining a grid map representation of road-users perception data, with the road-users perception data including tracked perception results and/or untracked sensor intermediate detections. The method also includes determining a grid map representation of static environment data based on data obtained from a perception system and/or a pre-determined map. The method further includes determining the properties of the plurality of objects based on the grid map representation of road-users perception data and the grid map representation of static environment data.

A method, system, and computer product that track scanning data acquired by a three-dimensional (3D) coordinate scanner is provided. The method includes storing a digital representation of an environment in memory of a mobile computing device. A first scan is performed with the 3D coordinate scanner in an area of the environment. A location of the first scan is determined on the digital representation. The first scan is registered with the digital representation. The location of the 3D coordinate scanner is indicated on the digital representation at the time of the first scan.

A robotic cleaning system may include a robotic cleaner configured to generate a map of an environment and a mobile device configured to communicatively couple to the robotic cleaner, the robotic cleaner configured to communicate the map to the mobile device. The mobile device may include a camera configured to generate an image of the environment, the image comprising a plurality of pixels, a display configured to display the image and to receive a user input while displaying the image, the user input being associated with one or more of the plurality of pixels, a depth sensor configured to generate depth data that is associated with each pixel of the image, an orientation sensor configured to generate orientation data that is associated with each pixel of the image, and a mobile controller configured to localize the mobile device within the map using the depth data and the orientation data.

LIDAR systems are less accurate in the presence of background light which can saturate the sensors in the LIDAR system. The embodiments herein describe a LIDAR system with a shutter synchronized to a laser source. During a first time period, the laser source is synched with the shutter so that the reflections are received when the shutter is in the process of changing between on and off states, during which time a function of the shutter (e.g., a phase retardation or opacity) monotonically changes so that reflections received at different times have different time-dependent characteristics (e.g., different polarizations). To mitigate the effects of background light, during a second time period, the laser source is synched with the shutter so that the background light is measured (in the absence of the reflections) which can be used to remove the effects of the background light from a range measurement.

A point cloud capture system is provided to detect and correct data density during point cloud generation. The system obtains data points that are distributed within a space and that collectively represent one or more surfaces of an object, scene, or environment. The system computes the different densities with which the data points are distributed in different regions of the space, and presents an interface with a first representation for a first region of the space in which a first subset of the data points are distributed with a first density, and a second representation for a second region of the space in which a second subset of the data points are distributed with a second density.

A vehicle, Lidar system and method of detecting an object is disclosed. The Lidar system includes a photonic chip, and a laser integrated into the photonic chip. The laser has a front facet located at a first aperture of the photonic chip to direct a transmitted light beam into free space. A reflected light beam that is a reflection of the transmitted light beam is received at the photonic chip and a parameter of the object is determined from a comparison of the transmitted light beam and the reflected light beam. A navigation system operates the vehicle with respect to the object based on a parameter of the object.

To provide a device for measuring a time of passage that is capable of sensing passage of the torso more accurately than a photoelectric cell while maintaining the ease of use of a photoelectric cell, passage of a runner is sensed by causing the upper portion of the body of the runner to be broadly illuminated by infrared light, visible light, and/or other such electromagnetic waves, and by detecting light reflected from large part(s) of the body of the runner.

A vehicle, Lidar system and method of detecting an object is disclosed. The Lidar system includes a photonic chip having a laser, an on-chip frequency shifter, a combiner and a first set of photodetectors. The laser generates a transmitted light beam and an associated local oscillator beam within the photonic chip. The on-chip frequency shifter shifts a frequency of the local oscillator beam. The combiner combines a reflected light beam with the frequency-shifted local oscillator beam, wherein the reflected light beam is a reflection of the transmitted light beam from the object to generate a first electronic signal at the first set of photodetectors. A processor obtains a first measurement of a parameter of the object from the first electronic signal. The vehicle includes a navigation system for navigating the vehicle with respect to the object using at least the first measurement of the parameter.