Patent ID: 11906628
Assignee: APPLE INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 13:
14. A method for optical sensing, comprising:
directing multiple sets of beams of optical radiation toward different, respective areas in a target scene while modulating the beams with respective carrier waves having a common carrier frequency, each set comprising a group of mutually adjacent beams, which are modulated simultaneously at different respective phase angles in a predefined spatial pattern and which are incident on a corresponding cluster of points in the target scene;
forming an image of the target scene on an array of sensing elements, which output respective signals in response to the optical radiation that is incident on the sensing elements during one or more detection intervals, which are synchronized with the carrier frequency, such that clusters of the points in the target scene that are illuminated by respective sets of the beams are imaged onto corresponding groups of the sensing elements, whereby the signals output by the different sensing elements in each of the groups represent the different respective phases of the carrier waves used in modulating the adjacent beams; and
processing the signals output by the sensing elements by combining the signals output by the sensing elements in each of the groups in order to generate a depth map of the target scene.