Patent ID: 11953600
Assignee: OUSTER, INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 13:
14. A solid state optical system comprising:
an emitter array comprising a plurality of light emitters configured to emit discrete beams of light at an operating wavelength into a field external to the optical system according to an illumination pattern;
a lidar sensor array comprising a first plurality of photosensors operable to detect light emitted from the emitter array and reflected back from a field external to the solid state optical system, wherein each photosensor in the first plurality of photosensors has a discrete field of view in the field that is non-overlapping beyond a threshold distance from the optical system with the fields of view of the other photosensors in the first plurality of photosensors and wherein the field of view of the lidar sensor array substantially matches, in size and geometry across a range of distances from the system the illumination pattern of the emitter array;
an image sensor array comprising a second plurality of photosensors configured to detect ambient light in the field, wherein the discrete fields of view of each photosensor in the first plurality of photosensors defines a field of view of the lidar sensor array and wherein a field of view of the image sensor array encompasses the field of view of the lidar sensor array;
an emitter controller coupled to the emitter array and configured to activate every emitter in the plurality of light emitters in each emission cycle by activating a subset of the plurality of light emitters at a time;
a lidar sensor controller coupled to the lidar sensor array and configured to synchronize a readout of individual photosensors within the first plurality of photosensors concurrently with a firing of corresponding light emitters in the emitter array such that each light emitter in the emitter array can be activated and each photosensor in the first sensor array can be readout through the emission cycle; and
an image sensor controller coupled to the image sensor array and configured to readout at least a portion of the image sensor array having a field of view that overlaps with a field of view of the emitter array to capture an image that is representative of the field during the emission cycle.