Patent ID: 9244171
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: G01C,G01S

Claim Text:
1. A TOF camera for a vehicle comprising: a light emitting unit that irradiates light to an object; a light receiving unit that detects a distance to the object based on light reflected and returned from the object, and generates a modulation signal for frequency modulation of the light; and a control unit that controls driving of the light emitting unit according to the modulation signal of the light receiving unit, wherein the light emitting unit comprises: a plurality of laser diodes, wherein the control unit decides a driving order of the laser diodes according to the modulation signal of the light receiving unit so as to control driving of the laser diodes, and decides current values of the laser diodes according to the modulation signal of the light receiving unit so as to control current amounts of laser diodes to be driven, wherein the control unit comprises: a driving order deciding section that decides the driving order of the laser diodes according to the modulation signal of the light receiving unit; a driving control section that controls the driving of the laser diodes according to the decided driving order; and a current control section that decides the current values of the laser diodes according to the modulation signal of the light receiving unit, and controls the current amounts of the laser diodes to be driven by a control signal of the driving control section, and wherein, when the modulation signal is received from the light receiving unit, the driving order deciding section decides the driving order of the laser diodes according to a preset driving order of laser diodes.