System and method for a rangefinding instrument incorporating pulse and continuous wave signal generating and processing techniques for increased distance measurement accuracy
AssigneesLaser Technology, Inc., Kama-Tech (HK) Limited
InventorsJeremy G. Dunne, Mark Frischman
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Abstract
A system and method for a rangefinding instrument incorporating pulse and continuous wave signal generating and processing techniques for increased distance measurement accuracy. The use of the former technique effectively solves the ambiguity issues inherent in the latter while allowing for relatively simple circuit implementations. Thus, a potentially more accurate phase-based distance measurement technique can be utilized which is also completely independent of the maximum range to the target.
Claims28
A rangefinding instrument comprising:
- a pulse-based signal transmission system;
- a phase-based signal transmission system;
- and
- at least one distance computing circuit coupled to said pulse-based and phase-based transmission systems operative to determine a range to a target based upon a time of flight of said pulse-based signals and a phase shift of said phase-based signals reflected from said in target, wherein an indicated range of said instrument to said target is based upon a more accurate range to said target as determined by said at least one computing circuit based upon either said phase-based signals or said pulse-based signals.
A rangefinding instrument comprising:
- a pulse-based signal transmission system;
- a phase-based signal transmission system;
- and
- at least one distance computing circuit coupled to said pulse-based and phase-based transmission systems operative to determine a range to a target based upon a time of flight of said pulse-based signals and a phase shift of said phase-based signals reflected from said target, wherein said at least one distance computing circuit computes said range to said target based upon said phase shift of said phase-based signals reflected from said target and provides calibration information for computation of said range to said target based upon a time of flight of said pulse-based signals.
A method for determining range to a target comprising:
- transmitting a pulse-based signal to said target;
- transmitting a phase-based signal to said target;
- determining a range to said target based upon a time of flight of said pulse-based signal and a phase shift of said phase-based signal reflected from said target;
- and
- displaying said range to said target based upon a determination of which of said pulse-based or phase-based signals is considered to be most accurate.
A method for measuring distance comprising:
- emitting a continuous wave laser beam toward a target;
- emitting a pulsed laser beam toward said target;
- receiving reflections of said continuous wave laser beam and said pulsed laser beam from said target;
- computing a distance to said target based on each of said emitted and reflected continuous wave and pulsed laser beams;
- determining which of said computed distances is more accurate;
- and
- indicating a range to said target based upon said more accurate range as determined by at least one computing circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.