# US 2025/0147157 A1 · Measurement apparatus

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- Number: US 2025/0147157 A1
- Document ID: US20250147157A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 18/730,529
- Filed: 2022-11-24
- Published: 2025-05-08
- Earliest claimed: 2022-01-21
- Assignees: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Koji ITABA; Kenichi HOSHI
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20250147157A1

## CPC

- G01S 7/4861: Circuits for detection, sampling, integration or read-out
- G01S 17/18: wherein range gates are used
- G01S 7/4816: {of receivers alone}
- G01S 7/4863: Detector arrays, e.g. charge-transfer gates
- G01S 7/4865: Time delay measurement, e.g. time-of-flight measurement, time of arrival measurement or determining the exact position of a peak (peak detection in noise, signal conditioning G01S7/487)
- G01S 7/4868: {Controlling received signal intensity or exposure of sensor}
- G01S 7/497: Means for monitoring or calibrating
- G01S 17/894: Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar
- G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES

## Abstract

A measuring device includes a sensor including a light-receiving element configured to generate charge according to an exposure amount and a plurality of accumulation portions configured to accumulate charge distributed according to an exposure period; a signal acquisition unit configured to acquire signal values corresponding to the charge of the plurality of accumulation portions, respectively; and a correction unit configured to identify a minimum signal value that indicates the smallest exposure amount from among the plurality of signal values and to correct the signal value based on the minimum signal value.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A measurement apparatus comprising:
a sensor including a light-receiving element configured to generate charge according to an exposure amount, and a plurality of accumulation portions configured to accumulate the charge distributed according to an exposure period;
a signal acquisition unit configured to acquire signal values corresponding to the charge in the plurality of accumulation portions, respectively; and
a correction unit configured to identify a minimum signal value that indicates the smallest exposure amount from among the plurality of signal values, and to correct the signal value based on the minimum signal value.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The measurement apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the correction unit has a first correction value that corresponds to the signal value when there is no reflected light corresponding to each of the accumulation portions, and the correction unit corrects the signal value corrected by the first correction value based on the minimum signal value corrected by the first correction value.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The measurement apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the correction unit has a parasitic correction value that corresponds to the signal value when no exposure period is provided corresponding to each of the accumulation portions, and the correction unit calculates the first correction value based on the parasitic correction value.

### Claim 4 (depends on 2)

The measurement apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the correction unit has a second correction value for correcting variation of the gain of the signal value corresponding to each of the accumulation portions, and the correction unit corrects the signal value corrected based on the minimum signal value based on the second correction value.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The measurement apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the correction unit calculates the second correction value based on the first correction value and a gain correction value that corresponds to the gain.

### Claim 6 (depends on 2)

The measurement apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the signal acquisition unit acquires a signal value that corresponds to the charge of the accumulation portion accumulated in the multiple exposure periods, and the correction unit calculates the first correction value based on the number of the exposure periods.

### Claim 7 (depends on 2)

The measurement apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:
a calculation unit configured to calculate a distance to an object based on the corrected signal value.