US 12,032,097 B2
Hybrid time-of-flight and imager module
Caner Onal, Palo Alto, CA (US); David Schleuning, Piedmont, CA (US); Brendan Hermalyn, San Francisco, CA (US); Simon Verghese, Mountain View, CA (US); Alex McCauley, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Brandyn White, Mountain View, CA (US); and Ury Zhilinsky, Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Feb. 21, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/171,883.
Application 18/171,883 is a continuation of application No. 16/229,193, filed on Dec. 21, 2018, granted, now 11,609,313.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/712,586, filed on Jul. 31, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2023/0194681 A1, Jun. 22, 2023
Int. Cl. G01S 7/48 (2006.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 7/4865 (2020.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 7/4865 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4804 (2013.01); G01S 7/4816 (2013.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
at least one time-of-flight (ToF) sensor;
an imaging sensor, wherein the at least one ToF sensor and the imaging sensor are configured to receive light from a scene comprising a spatial sector, wherein the spatial sector comprises a portion of an environment around a vehicle; and
a controller that carries out operations, the operations comprising:
receiving illumination light from at least a portion of the scene, wherein the illumination light is based on an illumination schedule;
causing the at least one ToF sensor to provide information indicative of a depth map of the scene based on the illumination light;
causing the imaging sensor to provide information indicative of an image of the scene based on the illumination light;
determining, based on a plurality of images of the scene, an optical flow representation of the scene; and
adjusting at least one operating parameter of the ToF sensor or the illumination light based on the optical flow representation of the scene.