Abstract: Provided is a ranging apparatus capable of acquiring an image and high-accurately measuring a distance. The ranging apparatus includes a camera 10 which includes an optical system 53 and an image pickup device 12 having a plurality of pixels arranged therein, an image analysis section 13, and a distance information acquisition section 14, the optical system 53 includes an aperture 51 disposed between two lenses 11a and 11b, the aperture 51 includes two aperture holes 52 corresponding to two ranging pupils 31 and 32, and the pixels include two image pickup pixels 12b corresponding to two aperture holes 52.

Abstract: A method for determining a distance to a target by a geodetic instrument is disclosed. The method comprises emitting an optical pulse towards a target at an emission time, applying a bias adjustment to a photodiode that is arranged to receive a return optical pulse reflected at the target, obtaining a reference signal that is indicative of a transient behavior of the photodiode for the bias adjustment, obtaining a difference signal by subtracting, from a signal output from the photodiode, a signal that resembles, or is equal to, the transient behavior of the photodiode in response to the bias adjustment based on the reference signal, extracting a reception time that corresponds to reception of the return optical pulse at the photodiode based at least in part on the difference signal, and determining the distance to the target based on the emission time and the reception time.

Abstract: Systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods to reduce a scan for identifying physical objects are disclosed. An example system includes a light source to broadcast a light signal, a window adjuster to set a scan parameter for the light signal, and a transceiver to receive communication indicative of a physical position of a mobile unit. In the example system, the window adjuster is to adjust the scan parameter based on the physical position.

Abstract: An object detection apparatus includes a transmitting portion configured to transmit a transmission wave, a receiving portion configured to receive a reception wave based on the transmission wave which returned, an estimation portion configured to estimate an amount of frequency transition between the transmission wave and the reception wave on the basis of a result of a frequency analysis, a correction portion configured to correct the reception wave to obtain consistency of frequencies with the transmission wave on the basis of an estimation result of the estimation portion, and a detection portion configured to detect information related to the object on the basis of a relation between the transmission wave and the corrected reception wave corrected by the correction portion.

Abstract: A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system includes a light detector having a first scanning mirror and a light sensor aligned with the first scanning mirror. The first scanning mirror is configured to rotate about a first axis and to reflect incident light pulses toward the light sensor at different angles of rotation with respect to the first axis. The light sensor is configured to detect reflected light pulses from the first scanning mirror over a range of the angles of rotation. An input area of the light detector has a non-uniform sensitivity response along a first direction.

Abstract: A portable laser emitter, laser target, and method for measuring the toe angle of a commercial truck steer axle are disclosed. The laser emitter is mounted to the wheel of a truck steer axle while the laser target is placed in front of the truck. Measurements are taken of the laser dot position on the target with the emitter mounted at either end of the steer axle. The process is then repeated with the target positioned behind the truck. The measurements taken from either end of the steer axle with both front and rear target positions are compared to determine the toe angle of the steer axle.

Abstract: An object detecting apparatus is provided with: a collimating assembly that converts laser light emitted by plural light-emitting points to a laser beam having a divergence angle in an arrangement direction of plural light-emitting points; and an optical assembly that projects the laser beam outward along an optical axis and guides an incident light toward a light-receiving element along the optical axis. The optical assembly is provided with a collective optics that forms an image of the incident light on a focal plane and an aperture located on the focal plane. The aperture satisfies ???, where ? is the divergence angle along the arrangement direction of plural light-emitting points, D is a size of a light passing region of the aperture in a direction corresponding to the divergence angle, d is an effective focal distance of the collective optics, and ?=arctan(D/d).

Abstract: A Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) receiver includes a first lens system and a first detector module optically coupled to the first lens system. The first lens system is configured to transmit a reflected light beam to a plurality of receiving areas of the first detector module, where each of the plurality of receiving areas corresponds to a different set of receiving directions of the reflected light beam. The first detector module includes a first photodetector array and a first analog readout integrated circuit (IC) coupled to the first photodetector array, where the first photodetector array and the first analog readout IC are each arranged in a different one of the plurality of receiving areas of the first detector module. The LIDAR receiver further includes a second lens system adjacent to the first lens system, and a second detector module optically coupled to the second lens system.

Abstract: A high-speed light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system includes one or more arrays of transmitting laser diodes (TLD) fixed to a mobile platform; multiple such arrays may be arranged around the mobile platform instead of a single array rotating at high speeds. Each TLD of the array transmits, in sequence, a light pulse at a transmit time to illuminate a particular azimuth and elevation. One or more receiving photodiodes (RPD) are fixed to the mobile platform and configured to receive the reflected returns of the transmitted laser pulses. Signal processors allow the LIDAR system to “see” at high resolution by determining distance and directional information and generating point clouds based on the returned pulses.

Abstract: A method to generate a vertical seismic profile includes acquiring a set of distributed acoustic sensing measurements from a set of overlapping measurement channels on an optical fiber, wherein each of the set of distributed acoustic sensing measurements are measured at a gauge length. The method also includes generating a set of virtual seismic measurements corresponding with subdivisions in the set of overlapping measurement channels based on the set of distributed acoustic sensing measurements and generating the vertical seismic profile based on the set of virtual seismic measurements.

Abstract: A seismic data acquisition unit includes circuitry to detect and digitize a seismic signal, and timing circuitry to control a time of acquisition of each sample of the seismic signal. The timing circuitry include a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a local clock incremented by the VCO, and a reference time receiver. The timing circuitry powers on the reference time receiver to generate a reference time value based on signals received from a reference time source, and measures time deviation of the local clock from the reference time value. The timing circuitry determines an adjustment value to apply to the VCO over a time interval during which the reference time receiver is not powered on. The adjustment value is selected to gradually bring the local clock into synchronization with the reference time source over the time interval at a time that the reference time receiver is to be next powered on.

Abstract: A remote tracking system such as a LIDAR system may track objects such as human faces. In such objects there is a natural axis of symmetry that is seen to be substantially normal to the orientation of the object. Nevertheless, because the object is typically in motion, one cannot expect that beams incident on the object to be normal to the object consistently. Rather, the beams tend to dwell on the object at some skew angle. In a typical case, the detected beam pattern from a given portion of the object is dependent on this dwell angle. In conventional remote tracking systems, it may be difficult to identify the portion of the object efficiently through all of the possible beam patterns due to variation of the dwell angle. It is an objective of improved techniques described herein to efficiently monitor and track an object regardless of the dwell angle.

Abstract: An internal structure detection system includes: two kinds of sensors with different operating principles for receiving reflected waves of vibration applied to an inspection target in an investigation area; and a processing apparatus that detects an internal structure of the inspection target by using the sensor data received by the two kinds of sensors. The two kinds of sensors are deployed in the investigation area with different densities, in a distributed manner.

Abstract: A distance detection apparatus includes a wave transmitter configured to transmit a transmission wave, a wave receiver configured to receive the transmission wave which is reflected by an object, a storage portion configured to store a transmission signal, a correlation processing portion configured to obtain a correlation value between the transmission signal and a reception signal corresponding to a reception wave, and a detection portion configured to detect a distance to the obstacle in a case where the correlation value indicates that the transmission signal and the reception signal are similar to each other at a level which is equal to or greater than a predetermined level.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for aerostat deployable from sonobuoy launch container. One embodiment is an apparatus that includes a capsule configured to launch from an aircraft and float in seawater with one or more sonobuoys. The capsule includes a receiver configured to receive sonobuoy data from the one or more sonobuoys, a transmitter configured to transmit the sonobuoy data to the aircraft, a cable configured to power the transmitter via a battery, and a reaction chamber including a reactant and configured to generate a gas from the seawater mixing with the reactant. The capsule also includes an aerostat tethered to the capsule via the cable and configured to inflate with the gas produced by the reaction chamber, and to ascend above the capsule with the transmitter to increase a distance for transmitting the sonobuoy data to the aircraft.

Abstract: Seismic survey data is received, indexed into index sets, and each index set partitioned into data blocks. For each particular data block of a particular index set, the particular data block is sliced into frequency slices. For each particular frequency slice of the particular data block, the particular frequency slice is processed to remove random and erratic noise by: forming a Hankel matrix from the particular frequency slice: determining an optimal rank for the Hankel matrix, determining a clean signal and erratic noise from the ranked Hankel matrix, and returning the clean signal and erratic noise for the particular frequency slice. A clean signal is assembled from the index sets.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes a system, device, and method for assisting a user to avoid contacting surfaces with their mobile device. An environment is sensed with one or more electronic sensors. The sensor readings are analyzed. Information is then provided to a user based on the analyzed sensor readings. The sensors may be configured so their sensor cones cross at a midpoint. Readings from the sensor(s) may be grouped according detection zone(s) corresponding to one or more areas about a mobile device. A computing module may control a feedback module according to detection zone readings. The feedback module may comprise an indicator for each detection zone. The indicator may be a vibration motor. The indicator may be a light. The computing module may set the colour of a light and/or control the vibrations based on the proximity of surfaces detected within the corresponding detection zone.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods, and structures—including LiDAR—that employ multiple detectors that may determine multiple incident angles of multiple received radiation beams and advantageously do not require or employ phase shifters in illustrative embodiments and may instead—employ optical Fourier transform structures.

Abstract: A marine seismic exploration method and system comprised of continuous recording, self-contained ocean bottom pods characterized by low profile casings. An external bumper is provided to promote ocean bottom coupling and prevent fishing net entrapment. Pods are tethered together with flexible, non-rigid, non-conducting cable used to control pod deployment. Pods are deployed and retrieved from a boat deck configured to have a storage system and a handling system to attach pods to cable on-the-fly. The storage system is a juke box configuration of slots wherein individual pods are randomly stored in the slots to permit data extraction, charging, testing and synchronizing without opening the pods. A pod may include an inertial navigation system to determine ocean floor location and a rubidium clock for timing. The system includes mathematical gimballing. The cable may include shear couplings designed to automatically shear apart if a certain level of cable tension is reached.

Abstract: A seismic apparatus includes one or more seismic cable systems configured to acquire seismic data, each seismic cable system having one or more of a cable jacket, a reservoir for a ballast fluid or other ballast medium, and an actuator or other transfer mechanism configured to transfer the ballast fluid between the reservoir and the seismic cable system during acquisition of the seismic data, e.g., where the ballast fluid is transferred to the seismic cable system within the cable jacket. A controller can be configured to adjust a buoyancy of the seismic cable system responsive to the transfer of the ballast fluid, e.g., where the internal volume expands or contract based on the fluid transfer.