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US 10,473,461 B2Granted
Motion-sensor device having multiple light sources
AssigneePanasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
InventorRyuji Fuchikami
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A motion sensor device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes an image sensor (101) and LED light sources (102, 103). Using an image captured by the image sensor (101) when both of the LED light sources (102, 103) are turned ON and an image captured by the image sensor (101) when only the LED light source (103) is turned ON, the distance to an object is estimated based on the luminance ratio of the object.
Claims11
A motion sensor device comprising:
- an image sensor capable of performing an exposure process on a plurality of frames continuously without allowing image data of the frames to be retrieved;
- a first light source being arranged at a first distance from the image sensor in a first direction;
- a second light source being arranged at a second distance from the image sensor in a second direction, the second direction being different from the first direction, the second distance being different from the first distance;
- and
- a controller configured to control the image sensor and the first and second light sources without controlling any other light source than the first and second light sources,
- wherein:
- the controller is configured to:
- make the image sensor capture a first frame with light emitted from the first light source at a first time;
- make the image sensor capture a second frame with light emitted simultaneously from both of the first and second light sources at a second time while image data of the first frame is kept in the image sensor;
- retrieve image data of the first and second frames from the image sensor:
- extract selectively an area with a relatively high luminance from data of each of the first and second images and determine coordinates and luminance thereof;
- calculate a luminance ratio that is a ratio between the luminances of the first and second images;
- and
- determine a distance to an object based on a direction toward the object which is determined from the coordinates of the area in one of the first and second images, the luminance ratio, and a known relationship between the direction to the object, the luminance ratio, and the distance.
11 more elements
A motion sensor device comprising:
- an image sensor capable of performing an exposure process on a plurality of frames continuously without allowing image data of the frames to be retrieved;
- a first light source being arranged at a first distance from the image sensor in a first direction;
- a second light source being arranged at a second distance from the image sensor in a second direction, the second direction being different from the first direction, the second distance being different from the first distance;
- and
- a controller configured to control the image sensor and the first and second light sources without contain an other light source than the first and second light sources,
- wherein:
- the controller is configured to:
- make the image sensor capture a first frame with light emitted from the first light source at a first time;
- make the image sensor capture a second frame with light emitted from the second light source at a second time while image data of the first frame is kept in the image sensor;
- retrieve image data of the first and second frames from the image sensor;
- obtain a first estimated distance to the object based on first and second images which have been obtained by capturing the first and second images;
- obtain a second estimated distance to the object by another method of measuring the distance;
- determine the distance to the object based on the first and second estimated distances;
- extract selectively an area with a relatively high luminance from data of each of the first and second images and determine coordinates and luminance thereof;
- calculate a luminance ratio that is a ratio between the luminances of the first and second images;
- and
- obtain the first estimated distance based on the direction toward the object which is determined from the coordinates of the area in one of the first and second images, the luminance ratio, and the known relationship between the direction, the luminance ratio, and the distance to the object.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.