Object detection apparatus and control method of object detection apparatus
An object detection apparatus includes: a light emission part; a light reception part; a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with the intensity of the environmental light; a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part; and a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part. The light reception control part causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time.
1 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with intensity of the environmental light obtained prior to determining the environmental light acquisition time;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part,
wherein an object detection time, which is a sum of the environmental light acquisition time and a light emission time during which the light emission part emits light for object detection, is constant.
2 . The object detection apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the time determination part increases the environmental light acquisition time if the intensity of the environmental light acquired by the light reception part is lower than a predetermined reference value.
3 . The object detection apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the time determination part decreases the environmental light acquisition time if the intensity of the environmental light acquired by the light reception part is higher than the predetermined reference value.
4 . The object detection apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the time determination part increases the environmental light acquisition time if the intensity of the environmental light acquired by an illumination sensor different from the light reception part is lower than a predetermined reference value.
5 . The object detection apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the time determination part decreases the environmental light acquisition time if the intensity of the environmental light acquired by an illumination sensor different from the light reception part is higher than the predetermined reference value.
6 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with a time of day, wherein the time of day is determined based on data received via mobile data communication;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part,
wherein an object detection time, which is a sum of the environmental light acquisition time and a light emission time during which the light emission part emits light for object detection, is constant.
7 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with weather in an environment of a vehicle, wherein the weather is determined based on data received from the vehicle;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part,
wherein an object detection time, which is a sum of the environmental light acquisition time and a light emission time during which the light emission part emits light for object detection, is constant.
8 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with map information, wherein the map information is determined based on data stored on a vehicle or received from an external server through telecommunication;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part,
wherein an object detection time, which is a sum of the environmental light acquisition time and a light emission time during which the light emission part emits light for object detection, is constant.
9 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with vehicle information, wherein the vehicle information is determined based on data received from a vehicle regarding a state of the vehicle;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part,
wherein an object detection time, which is a sum of the environmental light acquisition time and a light emission time during which the light emission part emits light for object detection, is constant.
10 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that acquires a user instruction to on-board equipment that is indicative of a state of environmental light and determines an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with the acquired user instruction;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part.
11 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines a time of light emission for object detection by the light emission part, which is a duration, in accordance with a characteristic of detection reflection light that is incident light on the light reception part in response to the light emission for object detection by the light emission part;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving the incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to perform a light reception operation by which to acquire environmental light during an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, determined by the determined light emission time and an object detection time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part and causes the light emission part to perform the light emission operation for object detection during the determined light emission time, wherein
the time determination part increases the light emission time and decreases the environmental light acquisition time if an S/N ratio that is the characteristic of the detection reflection light is lower than a predetermined reference value, and
the object detection time is constant.
12 . An object detection apparatus comprising:
a light emission part that emits laser light;
a light reception part;
a time determination part that determines a time of light emission for object detection by the light emission part, which is a duration, in accordance with a characteristic of detection reflection light that is incident light on the light reception part in response to the light emission for object detection by the light emission part;
a light reception control part that controls an operation of receiving the incident light by the light reception part and causes the light reception part to perform a light reception operation by which to acquire environmental light during an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, determined by the determined light emission time and an object detection time; and
a light emission control part that controls a light emission operation by the light emission part and causes the light emission part to perform the light emission operation for object detection during the determined light emission time, wherein
the time determination part decreases the light emission time and increases the environmental light acquisition time if the S/N ratio that is the characteristic of the detection reflection light is higher than the predetermined reference value, and
the object detection time is constant.
13 . A control method of an object detection apparatus comprising:
determining an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, during which to acquire environmental light in accordance with intensity of the environmental light;
causing a light reception part to execute a light reception operation by which to acquire the environmental light during the determined environmental light acquisition time; and
causing a light emission part emitting laser light to execute a light emission operation for object detection after a lapse of the environmental light acquisition time,
wherein an object detection time, which is a sum of the environmental light acquisition time and a light emission time during which the light emission part emits light for object detection, is constant.
14 . A control method of an object detection apparatus comprising:
determining a time of light emission for object detection by a light emission part emitting laser light, which is a duration, in accordance with a characteristic of detection reflection light that is incident light on a light reception part in response to the light emission for object detection by the light emission part;
causing the light reception part to perform a light reception operation by which to acquire environmental light during an environmental light acquisition time, which is a duration, determined by the determined light emission time and an object detection time;
causing the light emission part to perform a light emission operation for object detection during the determined light emission time; and
increasing the light emission time and decreasing the environmental light acquisition time if an S/N ratio that is the characteristic of the detection reflection light is lower than a predetermined reference value,
wherein the object detection time is constant.