Microsecond time of flight (μTOF) sensor

A distance measuring system comprising:

• a first emitter configured to emit a first optical signal coded with a first PN encoding;
• a second emitter configured to emit a second optical signal coded with a second PN encoding different from the first PN encoding;
• a first optical sensor configured to receive the first and second optical signals reflected from an object,
• a second optical sensor configured to receive the first and second optical signals reflected from the object, and
• at least one circuit connected to the first and second optical sensors, the at least one circuit being configured to discriminate between the first PN encoding and the second PN encoding, and
• at least one processor connected to the at least one circuit, the at least one processor configured to perform time of flight calculations on the first and second optical signals received by each of the first and second optical sensors to determine location of the object.

A sensing system comprising:

• at least two sensors for determining a location (X, Y) on a line (two dimensions), or at least 3 sensors for determining a location (X, Y, Z) in 3D space;
• N PN coded emitters, where N is any integer greater than 1, configured to enable the system to determine location of an object to within several wavelengths of light, yielding accuracy by processing PN codes that allows many emitters to be used;
• and
• a controller connected to the at least two sensors, the controller configured to use a first PN encoding emitted by a first of the N PN coded emitters and a second PN encoding emitted by a second of the N PN coded emitters to discriminate between the first and second optical signals received by the first sensor, and based on the received first and second optical signals discriminated for the first sensor, performing time of flight calculations and using results of the time of flight calculations to determine a location of the object.