Distance-measuring sensor, distance-measuring device and camera as well as distance-measuring method

A distance-measuring sensor for use in a distance-measuring device, the distance-measuring sensor comprising:

• a light-receiving part with multiple photoelectric conversion elements that convert a light from a distance measured object to an electric current according to an intensity of the light, the light-receiving part being divided into an effective area where surfaces of the photoelectric conversion elements is not light shielded and a light shielded area where surfaces of the photoelectric conversion elements is light shielded;
• an integrating part that integrates a photocurrent generated in each photoelectric conversion element of the light-receiving part, respectively and individually to make a current-voltage conversion;
• a region-assigning part that assigns four line regions from the surfaces of the photoelectric elements based on an external control signal;
• a signal converting part in each photoelectric conversion element of each region assigned by the region-assigning part that converts an output of the integrating part to a digital signal and outputs it to an arithmetic part;
• an arithmetic part that calculates intermediate data of a distance calculation for obtaining a distance to the distance measured object by using an output of the signal-converting part;
• and
• an output part that outputs the calculated intermediate data of the arithmetic part externally.

A distance-measuring method for calculating a distance to a distance measured object, comprising:

• receiving a light from the distance measured object by a distance-measuring sensor with multiple photoelectric conversion elements;
• integrating, respectively and individually, photocurrents produced by the photoelectric conversion elements in the distance-measuring sensor to generate an integration result;
• converting the integration result to digital data in the distance-measuring sensor;
• calculating intermediate data of the distance calculation by using digital data in the distance-measuring sensor;
• outputting the intermediate data from the distance-measuring sensor to an external device;
• and
• determining the distance using intermediate data in the external device of distance-measuring sensor.

A distance-measuring device, comprising:

• an optical part;
• a distance-measuring sensor that converts light from a distance measured object, received by a light-receiving part via the optical part, to an electric signal, integrates the electric signal, calculates intermediate data of a distance calculation based on electric signal, and outputs the data;
• and
• a CPU that calculates a distance to the distance measured object based on the intermediate data.

A camera having a distance-measuring device, comprising:

• a focusing optical part that is a part of a photographic lens;
• a lens driving part that drives the focusing optical part;
• an optical part;
• a distance-measuring sensor that converts light from an object lighted by a light-receiving part via the optical part to an electric signal, integrates the electric signal, calculates intermediate data of a distance calculation based on the integrated electric signal and outputs the data;
• and
• a CPU that calculates a distance to a distance measured object based on the intermediate data and controls the lens driving part to drive a lens based on the distance calculated.