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Systems and methods for detecting and analyzing objects

  • US 7,999,923 B2
  • Filed: 02/19/2009
  • Issued: 08/16/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system for detecting and analyzing objects, the system comprising:

  • a plurality of reflective walls defining an enclosed region of interest;

    a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) unit positioned to transmit laser pulses over a plurality of emittance angles within the enclosed region of interest, the LIDAR being configured to calculate the round trip time of flight of each return laser pulse associated with each of a given emittance angle to provide polar data in the form of a distance and emittance angle of an object within the enclosed region of interest for each laser pulse over the plurality of emittance angles; and

    a data analyzer that assigns laser pulses that reflect directly from the object based on a determined round trip time of flight within an enclosed region of interest to a physical rangefinder and that assigns laser pulses that reflect from one or more of the plurality of reflective walls indirectly from the object based on a determined round trip time of flight with the enclosed region of interest to an Nth order virtual rangefinder, where N is the number of reflections of a given transmitted laser pulse off of the plurality of reflective walls prior to contact with the object.

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