Device and method for processing signals from a set of ultrasonic transducers

A method of processing signals delivered by an ultrasonic sensor, the ultrasonic sensor comprising a set of transducers, at least some of the transducers of the set of transducers emitting signals or receiving echoes corresponding to a reflection of said signals by a detected object, the method comprising determining at least one characteristic item of information relating to the detected object, based on the signals received from the transducers of the ultrasonic sensor, wherein the method comprises a step of transforming the signals received from at least some transducers of the set of transducers into pulses, and a step of processing said pulses, the transformation step comprising, for each signal received from a transducer:

• applying thresholding to a signal derived from said signal delivered by the transducer, to extract directional information contained in a phase of the derived signal using at least one threshold, the extracted information comprising rising edges or falling edges of the derived signal;
• transforming the signal derived from the signal received from the transducer into pulses containing the phase of the signal, using the one or more signal edges extracted in the step of applying thresholding,
• and the step of processing the pulses comprises determining characteristic information based on the pulses determined for all of the signals received from said transducers.

A processing system for processing signals delivered by an ultrasonic sensor, the ultrasonic sensor comprising a set of transducers, at least some of the transducers of the set of transducers being configured to emit signals or receive echoes corresponding to a reflection of said signals by a detected object, signals being transmitted by a plurality of transducers of the ultrasonic sensor to the processing system in response to a reception of echoes by said transducers, the processing system being configured to determine at least one characteristic item of information relating to the detected object, based on the signals received from the transducers of the ultrasonic sensor, comprising a coupling device configured to transform the signals received from at least some transducers of the set of transducers into pulses, and a pulse processing unit configured to process the pulses delivered by the coupling device, wherein the coupling device comprises:

• a thresholding unit configured to apply, for each signal received from a transducer, thresholding to a signal derived from said signal received from the transducer, to extract directional information contained in a phase of the derived signal, using at least one threshold, the extracted information comprising rising edges and falling edges of the derived signal;
• a signal-to-pulse transformation unit configured to transform the signal derived from the signal received from the transducer into pulses containing the phase of the signal, using the one or more signal edges extracted by the thresholding unit,
• the pulse processing unit being configured to determine at least one characteristic item of information relating to the detected object based on the pulses determined by the coupling device for all of the signals received from said transducers.