Patent ID: 7119887

Claim:
An optical distance measuring sensor, comprising: a plurality of light-emitting elements that emit light; one lens that transmits light emitted from the plurality of light-emitting elements; a photodetector having a light-receiving surface on which light passed through the lens and reflected on an object to be detected is incident, the photodetector outputting a signal corresponding to a position of the incident light in the light-receiving surface; a light emission driving part that drives the plurality of light-emitting elements; a distance signal outputting part that receives a signal from the photodetector and outputs distance signal representing a distance to the object to be detected; a timing signal outputting part that outputs a timing signal having a prescribed cycle to activate a selected one of the plurality of light-emitting elements at a prescribed cycle; an initialization signal outputting part that outputs an initialization signal to the timing signal outputting part at a timing for switching the light emission among the light-emitting elements, such that the timing signal outputting part activates another selected one of the plurality of light-emitting elements at the prescribed cycle.