Patent ID: 7724181

Claim:
A target object detection apparatus for deriving target object information relating to one or more target objects, comprising transmitting and receiving circuitry configured to repetitively execute a transmit/receive operation of transmitting scanning electromagnetic waves and obtaining received signals based on reflected waves respectively reflected from said target objects; correlation matrix generating circuitry configured to successively generate an individual correlation matrix based on said received signals, during each of a fixed plurality of successive transmit/receive operations, and to calculate an average correlation matrix as a time-average of a plurality of individual correlation matrices respectively corresponding to said fixed plurality of transmit/receive operations; and target object information detection circuitry configured to derive said target object information by a calculation based upon said average correlation matrix, wherein in at least one of said fixed plurality of successive transmit/receive operations, a frequency of said transmitted scanning electromagnetic waves is made different from respective values of said frequency during each of remaining ones of said fixed plurality of transmit/receive operations.