Patent ID: 6850314

Claim:
A method for determining optical properties of a target, using a plurality of transmitters for transmitting signals at the target, and a plurality of receivers for detecting reflected signals from the target, comprises the steps of: a. transmitting radiation signals with a plurality of wavelengths at the target; b. detecting reflected trace radiation signals from the target; c. modulating the plurality of transmitters with a waveform for generating transmitter modulation codes; d. mixing the transmitter modulation codes with the reflected trace radiation signals to generate total signals; e. transmitting the total signals at the target; f. detecting reflected total signals from the target; g. decoding the known waveform of each transmitter of the plurality of transmitters for determining each transmitter's signal; h. dispreading the reflected total signals with a device capable of bipolar signal processing to generate equivalent decoding functions with orthogonality; i. digitizing the reflected total signals with an analog-digital converter to generate digitized signals; j. integrating the digitized signals with the decoding functions to extract individual signals from the total signals; and k. determining the optical properties of the target from the individual signals, selected from a group consisting of optical power, time delay, polarization, and beam.