Patent ID: 11947009
Assignee: OULUN YLIOPISTO
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A range imaging apparatus, comprising:
a semiconductor laser source, which comprises groups, each of the groups comprising one or more sub-source units, and different groups being configured to generate an optical pulse at repeated moments, and output a plurality of spatially separate optical beams towards a target zone, such that different groups of the semiconductor laser source are configured to output each of the spatially separate optical beams at different moments from each other;
an electric power source, which is configured to supply a constant electric power to the one or more sub-source units at each of the repeated moments;
a detector comprising single-photon sub-detector units configured to receive the optical pulse reflected from the target zone, at least two groups of the single-photon sub-detector units being configured to have separate field of views towards the target zone, and the at least two groups of sub-detector units being associated with different optical beams of the spatially separated optical beams on the basis of the separate field-of-views; and
a timing unit configured to determine a value corresponding to a time-of-flight of the optical pulse output at each of the repeated moments on the basis of signals from the sub-detector units of a group associated with an optical beam output at said moment,
wherein a ratio (P1/P0) between a power (P1) fed to a number (K) of the sub-source units and a power (P0) fed to all (KA) of the sub-source units is higher than a ratio (K/KA) of the number (K) of the sub-source units and a number (KA) of all of the sub-source units, where (K) is smaller than (KA).