Laser distance measuring apparatus

A laser distance measuring apparatus comprising:

• a laser beam generator that emits a laser beam;
• a light receiver that receives a reflected light of the laser beam reflected by an object, and outputs a light receiving signal;
• a time measuring device that measures, with a time resolution, a light receiving time which is a time from a time point when the laser beam generator emits the laser beam to a time point when the light receiver outputs the light receiving signal;
• a distance calculator that calculates an object distance which is a distance to the object, based on the measurement result of the light receiving time by the time measuring device, wherein the distance calculator changes the time resolution of the time measuring device used for calculation of the object distance, based on detection information:
• a scanning mechanism that change an irradiation angle of the laser beam, and
• a scanning controller that controls the scanning mechanism to scan the irradiation angle of the laser beam periodically,
• wherein the detection information is the light receiving time, and
• wherein the distance calculator changes the time resolution at this time measurement, based on the light receiving time measured at the irradiation angle of the last time scanning period corresponding to the irradiation angle of this time measurement.

A laser distance measuring apparatus comprising:

• a laser beam generator that emits a laser beam;
• a light receiver that receives a reflected light of the laser beam reflected by an object, and outputs a light receiving signal;
• a time measuring device that measures, with a time resolution, a light receiving time which is a time from a time point when the laser beam generator emits the laser beam to a time point when the light receiver outputs the light receiving signal;
• and
• a distance calculator that calculates an object distance which is a distance to the object, based on the measurement result of the light receiving time by the time measuring device,
• wherein the distance calculator changes the time resolution of the time measuring device used for calculation of the object distance, based on detection information,
• wherein the time measuring device is a capacitor charge type, and changes the time resolution, by performing A/D conversion of an output voltage of a capacitor, using a plurality of A/D converters in which widths of voltage measurement range are different with each other.

A laser distance measuring apparatus comprising:

• a laser beam generator that emits a laser beam;
• a light receiver that receives a reflected light of the laser beam reflected by an object, and outputs a light receiving signal;
• a time measuring device that measures, with a time resolution, a light receiving time which is a time from a time point when the laser beam generator emits the laser beam to a time point when the light receiver outputs the light receiving signal;
• and
• a distance calculator that calculates an object distance which is a distance to the object, based on the measurement result of the light receiving time by the time measuring device,
• wherein the distance calculator changes the time resolution of the time measuring device used for calculation of the object distance, based on detection information,
• wherein the detection information is the light receiving time,
• wherein a plurality of the time measuring devices in which the time resolutions are different with each other are provided,
• wherein the distance calculator selects the one time measuring device used for this time measurement, from the plurality of time measuring devices, based on the measured light receiving time, and
• wherein the distance calculator calculates the object distance based on the measurement result of the light receiving time of the one selected time measuring device.

A laser distance measuring apparatus comprising:

• a laser beam generator that emits a laser beam;
• a light receiver that receives a reflected light of the laser beam reflected by an object, and outputs a light receiving signal;
• a time measuring device that measures, with a time resolution, a light receiving time which is a time from a time point when the laser beam generator emits the laser beam to a time point when the light receiver outputs the light receiving signal;
• and
• a distance calculator that calculates an object distance which is a distance to the object, based on the measurement result of the light receiving time by the time measuring device,
• wherein the distance calculator changes the time resolution of the time measuring device used for calculation of the object distance, based on detection information,
• wherein the detection information is the light receiving time,
• a plurality of the time measuring devices in which the time resolutions are different with each other are provided,
• wherein the distance calculator selects the one measurement result of the light receiving time used for calculation of the object distance, from the plurality of the measurement results of the light receiving time which are measured by the plurality of time measuring devices, and
• wherein the distance calculator calculates the object distance based on the one selected measurement result of the light receiving time.