Distance measuring apparatus

An apparatus for measuring a distance to a target object and a shape of the target object with a range image obtained beforehand containing information of distances to objects including the target object, the apparatus comprising:

• a range image obtaining system that obtains the range image and that presents signal levels changing according to the distances to the objects, by irradiating light onto the objects and receiving reflected light from the objects by a light receiving device,
• said range image obtaining system defines a plurality of base-regions composed of a predetermined number of serial picture elements in the light receiving device, and executes a range image obtaining process except for base regions in which a received quantity of light is less than a predetermined level,
• wherein said range image obtaining system does not execute the range image obtaining process for a base-region in which one of the received quantity of light and an average value of the received quantity of light is not less than the predetermined level when a variation of the received quantity of light between neighboring base-regions exceeds a predetermined value, and
• wherein said range image processing system regards a region of the range image, corresponding to the base-region in which variation of the received quantity of light exceeds a predetermined threshold, as noise and assigns a uniform signal level to the region.

An apparatus for measuring a distance to a target object and a shape of the target object with a range image obtained beforehand containing information of distances to objects including the target object, the apparatus comprising:

• a range image obtaining system that obtains the range image and that presents signal levels changing according to the distances to the objects, by irradiating light onto the objects and receiving reflected light from the objects by a light receiving device,
• said range image obtaining system defines a plurality of base-regions composed of a predetermined number of serial picture elements in the light receiving device, and executes a range image obtaining process except for base regions in which a received quantity of light is less than a predetermined level,
• wherein said range image obtaining system does not execute the range image obtaining process for a base-region in which one of the received quantity of light and an average value of the received quantity of light is not less than the predetermined level when variation of the received quantity of light between neighboring base-regions exceeds a predetermined value, and
• wherein said range image processing system regards a region of the range image in which variation of signal levels exceeds a predetermined threshold as noise, and assigns a uniform signal level to the region.

An apparatus for measuring a distance to a target object and a shape of the target object with a range image obtained beforehand containing information of distances to objects including the target object, the apparatus comprising:

• a range image obtaining system that obtains the range image and that presents signal levels changing according to the distances to the objects, by irradiating light onto the objects and receiving reflected light from the objects by a light receiving device,
• said range image obtaining system defines a plurality of base-regions composed of and receiving reflected light from the objects by a light receiving device, predetermined number of serial picture elements in the light receiving device, and executes a range image obtaining process except for a plurality of serial base-regions in which an average value of the received quantity of light is less than a predetermined level,
• wherein said range image obtaining system does not execute the range image obtaining process for a base-region in which one of the received quantity of light and the average value of the received quantity of light is not less than the predetermined level when variation of the received quantity of light between neighboring base-regions exceeds a predetermined value, and
• wherein said range image processing system regards a region of the range image, corresponding to the base-region in which variation of the received quantity of light exceeds a predetermined threshold, as noise and assigns a uniform signal level to the region.

An apparatus for measuring a distance to a target object and a shape of the target object with a range image obtained beforehand containing information of distances to objects including the target object, the apparatus comprising:

• a range image obtaining system that obtains the range image and that presents signal levels changing according to the distances to the objects, by irradiating light onto the objects and receiving reflected light from the objects by a light receiving device,
• said range image obtaining system defines a plurality of base-regions composed of predetermined number of serial picture elements in the light receiving device, and executes a range image obtaining process except for a plurality of serial base-regions in which an average value of the received quantity of light is less than a predetermined level,
• wherein said range image obtaining system does not execute the range image obtaining process for a base-region in which one of the received quantity of light and the average value of the received quantity of light is not less than the predetermined level when variation of the received quantity of light between neighboring base-regions exceeds a predetermined value, and
• wherein said range image processing system regards a region of the range image in which variation of signal levels exceeds a predetermined threshold as noise, and assigns a uniform signal level to the region.