Multi-beam processing of lidar vibration signals

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by processing circuitry of a computer configured to determine a vibration velocity field over a surface of an object, a plurality of beams reflected from the surface, each of the plurality of beams producing respective vibration velocity values over time;

performing, by the processing circuitry, a similarity grouping operation on the plurality of beams to produce a group of beams of the plurality of beams, at least one pair of beams of the group of beams producing substantially the same vibration velocity value, the group of beams including an outlier beam producing an outlier vibration velocity value;

performing, by the processing circuitry, a normalization operation on the outlier beam to produce a normalized group of beams, the normalization operation being based on the vibration velocity values produced by the at least one pair of beams; and

performing, by the processing circuitry, a beam combination operation on the normalized group of beams to produce new vibration velocity values for each of the group of beams, the new vibration velocity values being more accurate than the vibration velocity value produced by each of the plurality of beams.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein performing the similarity grouping operation includes locating a pair of beams of the group of beams producing vibration velocity values such that the vibration velocity value produced by a second beam of the pair of beams increases and decreases as the vibration velocity value produced by a first beam of the pair of beams.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein performing the normalization operation includes replacing a first vibration velocity value produced by a beam of the group of beams with a second vibration velocity value, the second vibration velocity value being based on the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams of the group of beams.

4. The method as in claim 3 , wherein the first vibration velocity value is an outlier vibration velocity value.

5. The method as in claim 3 , wherein performing the normalization operation includes generating, as the second vibration velocity value, a median of the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams.

6. The method as in claim 3 , wherein performing the normalization operation includes generating, as the second vibration velocity value, a vibration velocity value at a percentile of the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams of the group of beams.

7. The method as in claim 6 , wherein the percentile decreases with increasing noise in the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams of the group of beams.

8. A computer program product comprising a nontransitory storage medium, the computer program product including code that, when executed by processing circuitry of a computer configured to determine a vibration velocity field over a surface of an object, cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of beams reflected from the surface, each of the plurality of beams producing respective vibration velocity values over time;

performing a similarity grouping operation on the plurality of beams to produce a group of beams of the plurality of beams, at least one pair of beams of the group of beams producing substantially the same vibration velocity value, the group of beams including an outlier beam producing an outlier vibration velocity value;

performing a normalization operation on the outlier beam to produce a normalized group of beams, the normalization operation being based on the vibration velocity values produced by the at least one pair of beams; and

performing a beam combination operation on the normalized group of beams to produce new vibration velocity values for each of the group of beams, the new vibration velocity values being more accurate than the vibration velocity value produced by each of the plurality of beams.

9. The computer program product as in claim 8 , wherein performing the similarity grouping operation includes rescaling the vibration velocity value produced by a second beam of a pair of beams of the group of beams to match the vibration velocity value produced by a first beam of the pair of beams.

10. The computer program product as in claim 9 , wherein the performing the beam combination operation includes, after performing the normalization operation, performing an unscaling operation on the second beam of the pair of beams to recover the vibration velocity value produced by the second beam.

11. The computer program product as in claim 8 , wherein performing the similarity grouping operation includes generating a median distance between a first beam of the plurality of beams and a second beam of the plurality of beams.

12. The computer program product as in claim 11 , wherein the median distance includes a median of an absolute value of the difference between vibration velocity values produced by the first beam and the second beam.

13. The computer program product as in claim 8 , wherein performing the similarity grouping operation includes performing a time shift operation on a second beam of the group of beams to produce a time-shifted second beam having a reduced median distance from a first beam of the group of beams.

14. An electronic apparatus, the electronic apparatus comprising

a memory; and

controlling circuitry coupled to the memory, the controlling circuitry being configured to:

receive a plurality of beams reflected from a surface, each of the plurality of beams producing respective vibration velocity values over time;

perform a similarity grouping operation on the plurality of beams to produce a group of beams of the plurality of beams, at least one pair of beams of the group of beams producing substantially the same vibration velocity value, the group of beams including an outlier beam producing an outlier vibration velocity value;

perform a normalization operation on the outlier beam to produce a normalized group of beams, the normalization operation being based on the vibration velocity values produced by the at least one pair of beams; and

perform a beam combination operation on the normalized group of beams to produce new vibration velocity values for each of the group of beams, the new vibration velocity values being more accurate than the vibration velocity value produced by each of the plurality of beams.

15. The electronic apparatus as in claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of beams produce a respective vibration velocity value over time based on a measured phase of that beam.

16. The electronic apparatus as in claim 15 , further comprising a laser source, and

wherein the measured phase of each of the plurality of beams is estimated based on a known phase behavior of incident beams emitted from the laser source.

17. The electronic apparatus as in claim 14 , wherein the controlling circuitry configured to perform the normalization operation is further configured to replace a first vibration velocity value produced by a beam of the group of beams with a second vibration velocity value, the second vibration velocity value being based on the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams of the group of beams.

18. The electronic apparatus as in claim 17 , wherein the first vibration velocity value is an outlier vibration velocity value.

19. The electronic apparatus as in claim 17 , wherein the controlling circuitry configured to perform the normalization operation is further configured to generate, as the second vibration velocity value, a median of the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams.

20. The electronic apparatus as in claim 17 , wherein the controlling circuitry configured to perform the normalization operation is further configured to generate, as the second vibration velocity value, a vibration velocity value at a percentile of the vibration velocity values produced by the other beams of the group of beams.