Patent ID: 7589827

Claim:
A system for detecting an object of interest in a search space, comprising: a radiation signal generator capable of irradiating said object of interest when moving in said search space with a spatially-encoded radiation signal, wherein said spatially-encoded radiation signal comprises a series of n beams radially extending from said radiation signal generator, wherein n is a positive integer greater than one, and wherein each of said beams has a unique characteristic; a radiation signal collector disposed to detect and transform a reflected radiation signal reflected from said object of interest into a first data signal; a processor capable of transforming said first data signal into positional and vectoral data of said object of interest; and wherein said search space is separated from a boundary medium by a boundary and wherein said radiation signal generator is configured to direct said spatially-encoded radiation signal in a direction such that said spatially-encoded radiation signal reflects off of said boundary before reflecting off of said object of interest.