Patent ID: 8018580

Claim:
A distance measurement method for use in a laser range finding device to measure a distance between the laser range finding device and a target, comprising: transmitting a laser signal to the target at a first time point; receiving a reflected laser signal reflected by the target; generating a digital signal by sampling the reflected laser signal and creating a plurality of different non-zero magnitude values that are each associated with a time for the received reflected laser signal and have a magnitude that corresponds to a magnitude of the received reflected laser signal at the associated time such that the generated digital signal has a waveform that is similar to a waveform of the received reflected laser signal; finding a maximum magnitude among the created different non-zero magnitude values of the generated digital signal, the maximum magnitude is associated with a second time point; and calculating the distance between the laser range finding device and the target based on a difference between the first time point and the second time point.