Patent ID: 8130368

Claim:
A distance measuring apparatus for measuring distances to a target point in a target area, comprising: a laser oscillator for generating a laser beam having a first wavelength; a nonlinear crystal into which the laser beam having the first wavelength generated by the laser oscillator enters, the nonlinear crystal generating a laser beam having a second wavelength; a collimator lens at which the laser beam having the first wavelength generated by the laser oscillator and the laser beam having the second wavelength generated by the nonlinear crystal are concentrated and are transformed into parallel light flux; an output unit for outputting the parallel light flux of the laser beam having the first wavelength and the laser beam having the second wavelength at the same time, while scanning the target area; a dichroic mirror provided with a first reflective surface and a second reflective surface, wherein the first reflective surface selectively reflects the laser beam having the first wavelength towards a target point in a target area, and the second reflective surface selectively reflects the laser beam having the second wavelength towards the target point in the target area; a first light receiving unit that receives the laser beam having the first wavelength that was selectively reflected by the first reflective surface and outputs a first signal; a second light receiving unit that receives the laser beam having the second wavelength that was selectively reflected by the second reflective surface and outputs a second signal; and a signal processing unit for measuring a distance to the target point in the target area by selecting one of the first signal and the second signal and determining the distance based on information regarding the laser beam associated with which one of the first signal and the second signal is selected by the signal processing unit.