Patent ID: 9658329
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: G01S

Claim:
1. An ultrasonic emitter apparatus configured to gate the emitter operation, the apparatus comprising: a housing including the ultrasonic emitter, the ultrasonic emitter being operable to periodically transmit an ultrasonic pulse of a predefined frequency; a microphone circuit disposed in the housing, the microphone circuit operable to receive a reflected ultrasonic signal derived from the transmitted ultrasonic pulse; a controller coupled to the emitter and the microphone circuit, the controller operable to gate the operation of the emitter to an OFF state based on at least one measured parameter of the reflected ultrasonic signal; and wherein one measured parameter is a Doppler measurement of the reflected ultrasonic signal, wherein the controller is operable to gate the operation of the emitter to the OFF state based on the Doppler measurement exceeding a threshold.