US 12,189,038 B2
Processing system for LIDAR measurements
Angus Pacala, San Francisco, CA (US); and Marvin Shu, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Ouster, Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Appl. No. 17/496,583
Filed by Ouster, Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
PCT Filed Aug. 5, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/045016
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 7, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/026241, PCT Pub. Date Feb. 11, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/882,907, filed on Aug. 5, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0176223 A1, Jun. 8, 2023
Int. Cl. G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G01S 7/4865 (2020.01); G01S 7/487 (2006.01); G01S 17/894 (2020.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 17/894 (2020.01) [G01S 7/4865 (2013.01); G01S 7/487 (2013.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical measurement system comprising:
a light source configured to transmit one or more pulse trains over one or more first time intervals as part of an optical measurement, wherein each of the one or more first time intervals includes one of the one or more pulse trains;
a photosensor comprising one or more photodetectors configured to detect photons from the one or more pulse trains;
a first integrated circuit comprising:
a plurality of first registers that accumulate photon counts from the one or more photodetectors received during the one or more first time intervals to represent a histogram of photon counts received during the one or more first time intervals, each of the plurality of first registers corresponding to a time bin in the histogram;
one or more integration registers that accumulate the photon counts from the one or more photodetectors over a second time interval that overlaps with at least a portion of the one or more first time intervals;
a threshold detection circuit configured to provide a threshold for identifying one or more peaks in the histogram, wherein the threshold detection circuit is configured to calculate the threshold using one or more values in the one or more integration registers; and
a peak detection circuit configured to make a pass through the plurality of first registers and identify the one or more peaks represented in the histogram using the threshold; and
a second integrated circuit comprising a processor, wherein the first integrated circuit is configured to send information describing the one or more peaks detected using the threshold to the processor on the second integrated circuit.