Granted Patent B2

US 12,571,892 · App. 17/617,139 · Granted Mar 10, 2026

Inventor: Hiroyuki Hirano (Kanagawa, JP)

Assignee: SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

G01S7/495G01S7/484G01S7/4865G01S7/4866G01S7/487G01S17/10

Abstract

Claims (27)

1 . A distance measurement device, comprising:

a time measurement unit configured to determine time information indicating a time from a light emission timing to a light reception timing, wherein

a light source emits light at the light emission timing, and

a light receiving element receives reflected light at the light reception timing;

a histogram generation unit configured to generate a histogram based on the time information;

a light source control unit configured to dynamically change driving state of the light source;

a selection unit configured to:

detect a plurality of peaks in a frame of a plurality of frames in the histogram;

generate a learning model based on information associated with the dynamically changed driving state of the light source and information associated with a summary statistic of each peak of the plurality of peaks in the frame,

wherein the summary statistic includes at least one of a dispersion of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, a skewness of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, a kurtosis of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, an asymmetry of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, or a tailing degree of the each peak of the plurality of peaks; and

select a peak among the plurality of peaks based on the generated learning model; and

a distance calculation unit configured to calculate a distance to an object based on the selected peak.

2 . The distance measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein the light source control unit is further configured to randomly change the driving state of the light source.

3 . The distance measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein the light source control unit is further configured to:

change at least one of a pulse width of a driving current of the light source, a rise time of the driving current, or a fall time of the driving current; and

change the driving state of the light source based on the at least one of the changed pulse width, the changed rise time, or the changed fall time.

4 . A distance measurement method, comprising:

determining time information indicating a time from a light emission timing to a light reception timing, wherein

a light source emits light at the light emission timing, and

a light receiving element receives reflected light at the light reception timing;

generating a histogram based on the time information;

dynamically changing a driving state of the light source;

detecting a plurality of peaks in a frame of a plurality of frames in the histogram;

generating a learning model based on information associated with the dynamically changed driving state of the light source and information associated with a summary statistic of each peak of the plurality of peaks in the frame,

wherein the summary statistic includes at least one of a dispersion of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, a skewness of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, a kurtosis of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, an asymmetry of the each peak of the plurality of peaks, or a tailing degree of the each peak of the plurality of peaks;

selecting a peak among the plurality of peaks based on the generated learning model; and

calculating a distance to an object based on the selected peak.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (32)