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Method for optically measuring distance

  • US 6,836,317 B1
  • Filed: 11/20/2000
  • Issued: 12/28/2004
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method of measuring the distance between a location and an object by optical pulse delay measurement, comprising the steps of:

  • a) sending a light pulse from the location to the object at a first instant for reflection from the object and subsequent reception at the location as a reflected light pulse at a second instant for conversion into a received signal;

    b) time discrete sampling of the received signal at a sampling clock rate during a first predetermined period including at least the second instant for obtaining samples of the received signal, the samples being stored, sample by sample, at a rate of storing equal to the sampling clock rate, to produce a stored set of received signal samples;

    c) repeating steps a) and b) N number of times to obtain N stored sets, wherein N is an integer equal to or greater than 1;

    d) summing the N stored sets, sample by sample, at a rate of summing slower than the sampling clock rate during a second period of time following the N first periods of time to produce a stored summed set;

    e) repeating steps a) through d) to obtain at least one further stored summed set and updating the stored summed set by adding thereto the further stored summed set, sample by sample, at a rate slower than the sampling clock rate;

    f) searching within the updated stored summed set for significant samples satisfying at least one predetermined threshold value;

    g) repeating steps e) and f) until significant samples have been found; and

    h) determining the distance from the position of the significant samples.

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