Integrated sensor and rangefinding analog signal processor

Abstract

A light-stripe rangefinding system consisting of a 6*10 array of pixels is described. Each pixel contains a photodiode to detect the light stripe and a primarily analog signal processor to determine and store the time at which the light stripe crosses that photodiode. Incorporating signal processing into each pixel makes it possible to modify the light-stripe rangefinding algorithm to achieve a frame rate over two orders of magnitude faster than conventional light-stripe rangefinding methods; i.e. over 100 frames/s. The novelty of this approach is its use of smart sensors, ones which provide signal processing at the point of sensing. In this case, the increase in cell complexity from sensing-only to sensing-and-processing makes the modification of the operational principle of rangefinding practical, which in turn results in a dramatic improvement in performance.