Patent ID: 7940178
Filing Date: 2011-05-10
Classification: G01S,G08B

Abstract:
1. A laser area sensor, comprising: a laser range finder that emits laser light, and measures a distance to an object that is present in a laser light emitting direction based on a period of time for light reflected by the object to return; a scanning mechanism portion that changes a measurement direction of the laser range finder; a distance information acquiring portion that defines a detection area and acquires distance information in each direction in the detection area in a time-series manner, by periodically causing the laser range finder to perform measurement while causing the scanning mechanism portion to change the measurement direction; a human body judging portion that extracts a portion that is presumed to correspond to a human body, from among the distance information acquired by the distance information acquiring portion, and judges whether or not the extracted portion matches a human body based on a time-series moving status of the extracted portion; and a human body detection signal output portion that outputs a human body detection signal when the human body judging portion judges that a human body is present.