Patent ID: 7848904

Claim:
An apparatus for analyzing sensor data, comprising: a. a location discretizer configured to discretize locations in sensor data in at least two value surfaces, the at least two value surfaces residing in a value space, the sensor data received using a sensor data receiving device; b. a surface component derivation module configured to derive at least two surface components, each of the at least two surface components resulting from the intersection of a geometric beam shape function with each of the at least two value surfaces, the geometric beam shape function describing a sensor beam, the sensor beam having an origin, a direction, and a shape; c. an index location limits determination module configured to determine at least two minimum-maximum index locations for the at least two surface components, each of the at least two minimum-maximum index locations representing a maximum index location and a minimum index location; d. a surface component index points identification module configured to determine contained surface component index points by identifying the index locations that are located within the at least two minimum-maximum index locations and within the at least two contained surface components; and e. a beam value generator configured to generate a beam value by performing a beam function using the values at the contained surface component index points.