Method and apparatus for providing a digital sensor signal from an ultrasonic sensor

Abstract

A method for providing a digital sensor signal (DS) from an ultrasonic sensor (16) for signal transmission to a signal receiver (28) is disclosed, in which a digital output signal (OS) from the ultrasonic sensor (16) is processed to form the digital sensor signal for signal transmission. Provision is made for the processing to comprise the following steps: (i) determining a signal change (SC) of successive values of the output signal (OS), (ii) scaling this signal change (SC) by means of a variable scaling factor (SF) which is specified by a scaling scheme known to the ultrasonic sensor (16) and the signal receiver (28), and (iii) outputting the scaled signal change (SC) as the digital sensor signal (DS). A corresponding apparatus (32) is disclosed for creating a digital sensor signal (DS) from an ultrasonic sensor (16) for signal transmission to a signal receiver (28), to a corresponding ultrasonic sensor device with an ultrasonic sensor (16) and such an apparatus (32), and to a corresponding ultrasonic sensor system (14).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.