Patent ID: 11933896
Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. An optical distance measuring apparatus comprising:
a light source configured to irradiate a target object with at least one light pulse having a first pulse width;
at least one light receiver configured to output a pulse signal that:
represents reflection light from the target object being incident on the at least one light receiver, and
has a second pulse width that is larger than or equal to the first pulse width;

a histogram generator configured to record, every predetermined period, a frequency representing the number of pulse signals outputted from the at least one light receiver to thereby generate a histogram;
a peak detector configured to detect, from the histogram, an edge point of at least one peak figure included in the histogram; and
a distance calculator configured to:
subtract, from a time indicative of the edge point of the at least one peak figure, a time length of the second pulse width to thereby calculate a target time; and
calculate a distance to the target object as a function of the calculated target time.