METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DETERMINING DISTANCES TO A SCENE

• Main Authors: PAESEN, Rik, VANDEWIELE, Stijn, VAN DEN BROECK, Nick, VAN DYCK, Dirk
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 31.03.2021
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING

The present disclosure relates to a method and device for determining distances to a scene. The method comprises steps of determining a laser light pulse width PW that is smaller a maximum time of flight TOFmax corresponding to a maximum distance Dmax by using a pulse width reduction factor N such that PW = (TOFmax - TDL) /N wherein TDL is a predefined delay window, determining a pulse frequency FP such that FP ≤ 1/((N+1) x PW + TDL), illuminating the scene with an illuminating pattern comprising a plurality of spatially separated pulsed laser beams having the determined pulse width and frequency, performing the detection as function of time during a detection time period TD divided in M = α x (N+1) consecutive detection time windows, with α ≥ 1, such that TD = M x (PW/α), identifying in what detection time windows reflected laser light is detected and calculating a distance to the scene based on this identification.