Patent ID: 7759624
Filing Date: 2010-07-20
Classification: G01S,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image data generating device comprising: a light emitting device configured to emit light; a light receiving device configured to receive incident light including the emitted light, which is reflected on a subject; a distance image data generation unit configured to find a distance to the subject by controlling the light emitting device and the light receiving device and generate distance image data representing the distance; a plane image data generation unit configured to control the light receiving device and generate plane image data representing a plane image of the subject; and an operation control unit configured to selectively operate the distance image data generation unit and the plane image data generation unit, wherein: the light receiving device includes an array of a plurality of pixel generating units, each of the pixel generating units including the distance image data generation unit further configured (i) to group the plurality of pixel generating units into multiple first sets of pixel generating units, (ii) to calculate a distance to the subject with respect to each first set of pixel generating units based on output values for the pixel generating units included in the each first set, and (iii) to represent a value corresponding to the calculated distance as a pixel value for a coordinate corresponding to the each first set of pixel generating units and generate the distance image data; and the plane image data generation unit further configured to describe a value corresponding to an output value for each of the pixel generating units as a pixel value for a coordinate corresponding to the each of the pixel generating units and generate the image data representing a plane image of the subject.