Distance-measuring apparatus which uses different calculations depending on whether the object is dynamically changing

A distance-measuring apparatus comprising:

• a light source to emit pulsed light;
• an image sensor to receive and photoelectrically convert the pulsed light, which is emitted from the light source and then reflected by an object, into a plurality of electrical signals, and to sort the plurality of electrical signals into a plurality of phase signals corresponding to frames;
• a memory to store data including the plurality of phase signals or a value that is based on the plurality of phase signals;
• circuitry configured to determine whether or not a dynamic change is present in the object, based on the data of a current frame and at least one past frame;
• and
• circuitry configured to calculate distance to the object using the data, according to a result of determination made by the circuitry configured to determine,
• wherein when the circuitry configured to determine determines that the dynamic change is not present, the circuitry configured to calculate performs moving average calculations on the data of at least two of the frames, and obtains the distance from a result of the moving average calculations,
• wherein when the circuitry configured to determine determines that the dynamic change is present, the circuitry configured to calculate obtains the distance from only the data of the current frame or a future frame, and
• wherein the circuitry configured to determine refers to a phase signal Ck (k=1, 2, . . . , M) that divides a pulse cycle of the pulsed light into m cycles (m≥3), and determines whether the dynamic change is present in the object by comparing an inter-frame change in a sine component A of a phase difference and an inter-frame change in a cosine component B of the phase difference obtained in
• A=Σk=1m{Ck_n×sin(2π/m×(k−1))}
• B=Σk=1m{Ck_n×cos(2π/m×(k−1))}
• with a prescribed threshold.

A distance-measuring apparatus comprising:

• a light source to emit pulsed light;
• an image sensor to receive and photoelectrically convert the pulsed light, which is emitted from the light source and then reflected by an object, into a plurality of electrical signals, and to sort the plurality of electrical signals into a plurality of phase signals corresponding to frames;
• a memory to store data including the plurality of phase signals or a value that is based on the plurality of phase signals;
• circuitry configured to determine whether or not a dynamic change is present in the object, based on the data of a current frame and at least one past frame;
• and
• circuitry configured to calculate distance to the object using the data, according to a result of determination made by the circuitry configured to determine,
• wherein when the circuitry configured to determine determines that the dynamic change is not present, the circuitry configured to calculate performs moving average calculations on the data of at least two of the frames, and obtains the distance from a result of the moving average calculations,
• wherein when the circuitry configured to determine determines that the dynamic change is present, the circuitry configured to calculate obtains the distance from only the data of the current frame or a future frame, and
• wherein the circuitry configured to determine refers to a phase signal Ck (k=1, 2, . . . , M) that divides a pulse cycle of the pulsed light into m cycles (m≥2), and determines whether the dynamic change is present in the object by comparing an inter-frame change in a difference between an environmental light intensity obtained using the imaging element and the plurality of phase signals with a prescribed threshold.