Patent ID: 7643376

Claim:
A direction detecting device comprising: a transmitting wave generator for encoding a transmitting signal with a code having a high autocorrelation so as to generate a transmitting wave; a transmitter for transmitting the transmitting wave; a receiver including a plurality of receiver elements for receiving a reflected wave reflected by an object; an orthogonal demodulator for orthogonally demodulating the reflected wave received by each of the receiver elements so as to generate a received signal; a correlation-value calculating unit for calculating a complex correlation value between each of the receiving signals and the transmitting signal using the code; a phase-difference calculating unit for calculating a phase difference between the complex correlation value calculated based on the reflected wave received by one of the receiver elements and the complex correlation value calculated based on the reflected wave received by another one of the receiver elements; and a direction calculating unit for calculating a direction of the object based on the phase difference, a distance between the one of the plurality of receiver elements and the another one of the receiver elements, and a wavelength of the transmitting wave.