Ranging apparatus
AssigneesSTMicroelectronics (Research & Development) Limited, STMicroelectronics (Grenoble 2) SAS
InventorsBruce Rae, Pascal Mellot, John Kevin Moore, Graeme Storm
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A ranging apparatus includes an array of light sensitive detectors configured to receive light from a light source which has been reflected by an object. The array includes a number of different zones. Readout circuitry including at least one read out channel is configured to read data output from each of the zones. A processor operates to process the data output to determine position information associated with the object.
Claims26
A ranging apparatus, comprising:
- a first array of a plurality of light sensitive detectors configured to receive light from a light source which has been reflected by an object;
- a first addressing circuit configured to simultaneously define, during operation of said ranging apparatus, a plurality of zones within said first array and further dynamically define a position of each zone of the simultaneously defined plurality of zones in the first array and a number of light sensitive detectors that are included within each zone of the simultaneously defined plurality of zones;
- readout circuitry having at least one read out channel, said readout circuitry configured to read out data from each zone of said simultaneously defined plurality of zones;
- and
- a processor configured to determine position information associated with said object in dependence on said outputs from the first array.
A ranging apparatus, comprising:
- an array including a plurality of light sensitive detectors, each light sensitive detector configured to receive light from a light source which has been reflected by an object;
- an addressing circuit configured to simultaneously define a plurality of different zones within said array, with each zone including light sensitive detectors;
- said addressing circuit further configured to dynamically define, during operation of said ranging apparatus, the number of light sensitive detectors that are included within each zone;
- a logic circuit configured to select data output from the light sensitive detectors of a selected one of said zones;
- a multiplexing circuit configured to direct the selected data to one of a plurality of channel banks.
A ranging apparatus, comprising:
- a first array of a plurality of light sensitive detectors configured to receive light from a light source which has been reflected by an object, said first array comprising a first plurality of zones;
- a second array of a plurality of light sensitive detectors configured to receive light from the light source which has been reflected by the object, said second array comprising a second plurality of zones;
- wherein the first and second arrays are separated by an interspatial distance;
- readout circuitry including a plurality of read out channels, said readout circuitry configured to read out data from each zone of said first plurality of zones and each zone of said second plurality of zones;
- and
- a processor configured to determine a distance to said object by stereoscopic perspective using the data in the plurality of read out channels that is read out from the first plurality of zones in the first array and read out from the second plurality of zones in the second array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.