Abstract: A distance detector 10 includes a light projecting unit 100 which projects light toward a target body, a light receiving unit 200 which receives a reflected light from the target body, a time detection unit 310 which detects a light receiving time from the projecting of measuring light by the light projecting unit 100 to the receiving of the reflected light by the light receiving unit 200, a calculation unit 320 which calculates the distance to the target body based on a detection result of the light receiving time by the time detection unit 310, and an evaluation unit 340 which evaluates the reliability of a calculation result of the distance to the target body by the calculation unit 320 based on a deviation of the distance corresponding to the calculation result from a reference value regarding the distance to the target body.

Abstract: With a ranging device and a ranging method according to the present embodiment, occurrence of a first event in which the intensity of a detection signal corresponding to reflected light output from a detection unit exceeds a first threshold and occurrence of a second event in which the intensity falls below a second threshold smaller or larger than the first threshold are counted for each predetermined elapsed time after the measuring beam emission from a projector. Based on integration results (i.e., histograms) obtained by integrating the counts for a plurality of times of light emission, a target signal derived from the reflected light can be extracted from the detection signal including random noise derived from external light, a detection time from the light emission to the detection by the detection unit can be determined, and a distance to an object can be precisely determined.

Abstract: A distance detection apparatus includes: a detection unit which detects a time until when an output light is received by a light receiving unit; a computation unit which computes a distance to a detection target by using the time detected by the detection unit; an obtaining unit which obtains a predetermined range which is a range prone to a detection error due to a fog; and a determination unit which determines whether the distance to the detection target computed by the computation unit is included in the predetermined range.

Abstract: A distance detection apparatus includes: a detection unit which detects a time until when an output light is received by a light receiving unit; a computation unit which computes a distance to a detection target by using the time detected by the detection unit; an obtaining unit which obtains a predetermined range which is a range prone to a detection error due to a fog; and a determination unit which determines whether the distance to the detection target computed by the computation unit is included in the predetermined range.