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

Claim 12:
13. A range imaging method, the method comprising:
generating an optical pulse repeatedly and outputting spatially separate optical beams from different groups, each of the groups comprising one or more sub-source units, towards a target zone such that each of the optical beams is output as the optical pulse at different moments from each other;
supplying, by an electric power source, a constant electric power to the one or more sub-source units at each of the repeated moments;
receiving the optical pulse reflected from the target zone, by a detector comprising single-photon sub-detector units, at least two groups of the sub-detector units having separate field of views towards the target zone, and each of the at least two groups of the sub-detector units being associated with different optical beams on the basis of the separate field-of-views; and
determining 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).