Xenomatix Nv

Filip Geuens

Johan Van Den Bossche

Dirk Van Dyck

Rik Paesen

The invention pertains to a system for characterizing surroundings of a vehicle, the system comprising: projection means () arranged for projecting a pattern of laser light towards said surroundings in a sequence of pulses; a detector () comprising a plurality of pixels, said detector () being configured for detecting light representing said pattern of laser light as reflected by said surroundings in synchronization with said sequence of pulses; and processing means () configured to calculate distances to objects () in said surroundings as a function of exposure values generated by said pixels in response to said detected light; wherein said detector () is further configured for detecting light forming a two-dimensional image of said surroundings at points in time that do not coincide with said sequence of pulses or at pixels that do not receive said light representing said pattern of laser light as reflected by said surroundings.

System for characterizing surroundings of a vehicle

A system for determining a distance to an object including a solid-state light source, a detector having a plurality of picture elements, and a processor to calculate the distance to the object as a function of exposure values generated by picture elements in response to the detected light. The picture elements generate exposure values by accumulating a first amount of electrical charge representative of reflected light during a first time window and a second electrical charge representative of reflected light during a second predetermined time window. The detecting occurs at the two charge storage wells; and the system interleaves the predetermined time windows with time windows during which the picture elements are used in a function different from the detecting and/or the picture elements include at least one further charge storage well to perform the function different from the detecting of the first and second amount of light.

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Holsbeek, Belgium

Filip Geuens