Determining positional information of an object in space

A method of determining positional information of a target object in a region of space within range of a light sensitive sensor, the method including:

• illuminating a region of space monitored by a light sensitive sensor with a plurality of non-coplanar light sources, the plurality of light sources being mounted on a rigid structure and having a known geometric relationship, and wherein at least some of the light sources have overlapping fields of illumination;
• changing a property selectively over time for more than one of the plurality of light sources;
• measuring, using a light sensitive sensor during a time period in which the property of the light sources is changing, one or more differences in a property of returning light that is reflected from the target object as the target object moves through the region of space monitored by the light sensitive sensor;
• comparing the one or more differences in the property of returning light to a look-up table that comprises mappings of measurements from the light sensitive sensor to a corresponding incoming angle of light;
• determining positional information for the target object using the incoming angle of light;
• and
• recognizing signals in response to (i) the positional information of the target object determined based on at least, a first position in space at a first time t0 and a second position in space at a second time t1 sensed using the measured one or more differences in the property of the returning light and (ii) movement of the target object.

A method of determining positional information of an object in a region of space within range of a light sensitive sensor, the method including:

• illuminating a region of space monitored by a light sensitive sensor with a plurality of non-coplanar light sources, the plurality of light sources being mounted on a rigid structure and having a known geometric relationship, and wherein at least some of the light sources have overlapping fields of illumination;
• changing a property selectively over time for more than one of the plurality of light sources;
• detecting, using a light sensitive sensor during a time period in which the property of the light sources is changing, illumination in the region of space including illumination (i) that is selectively generated by the plurality of non-coplanar light sources and (ii) reflected by the object as the object moves through the region of space;
• determining differences in a property of the illumination received for two or more points;
• generating comparisons for the differences in the property of the illumination using a look-up table that comprises a shape-to-distance look-up table;
• determining positional information of the object from the comparisons to identify movement of the object;
• and
• generating, by a computer system, a three-dimensional model of the object.