Time-of-flight sensor and method for measuring distance
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics (Grenoble 2) SAS
InventorsThibault Augey, Jeremie Teyssier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A time-of-flight sensor includes a light emitting device configured to emit light rays toward a scene and a photosensitive pixel matrix configured to receive light signals reflected from the scene and to generate an image that includes dots associated with the light signals reflected from the scene. Each dot covers a number of pixels of the image. A processing unit is configured to, for each dot of the image, partition the pixels of the dot into at least one group of pixels and, for each group of pixels, compute a representative value of distance values of the pixels of this group. The representative distance value can then be applied to each pixel of the group of pixels.
Claims19
A time-of-flight sensor comprising:
- a light emitting device configured to emit light rays toward a scene;
- a photosensitive pixel matrix configured to receive light signals reflected from the scene and to generate an image that includes dots associated with the light signals reflected from the scene, each dot covering a plurality of pixels of the image;
- a processing unit configured to:
- for each dot of the image, partition the pixels of the dot into at least one group of pixels;
- for each group of pixels, compute a representative value of distance values of the pixels of this group;
- and
- apply the representative distance value for each pixel of the group of pixels.
A method for measuring distances between a time-of-flight sensor and elements of a scene wherein the time-of-flight sensor is placed, the method comprising:
- emitting light rays toward the scene;
- receiving light signals reflected from the scene at a pixel matrix of the time-of-flight sensor;
- generating an image illustrating dots associated from the received light signals;
- for each dot of the image, partitioning the pixels of the dot into groups of pixels;
- for each group of pixels, computing a representative value of the distance values of the pixels of the group, the representative distance value then being applied for each pixel of the group of pixels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.