Adaptive noise mitigation for different parts of the field of view

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10317534-B2
Application number	US-201715847524-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2017
Priority date	Sep 20, 2016
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

A LIDAR system is provided. The LIDAR system comprises at least one processor configured to: control at least one light source in a manner enabling light flux to vary over a scan of a field of view, the field of view including a first portion and a second portion; receive on a pixel-by-pixel basis, signals from at least one sensor; estimate noise in at least some of the signals associated with the first portion of the field of view; alter a sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first portion of the field of view; estimate noise in at least some of the signals associated with the second portion of the field of view; and alter a sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the second portion of the field of view based on the estimation of noise in the second portion of the field of view.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A LIDAR system, comprising:
at least one processor configured to:
control at least one light source in a manner enabling light flux to vary over a scan of a field of view, the field of view including a first portion and a second portion;
receive on a pixel-by-pixel basis, signals from at least one sensor, wherein the signals are indicative of at least one of ambient light and light from the at least one light source reflected by an object in the field of view combined with noise associated with the at least one sensor;
estimate noise in at least some of the signals associated with the first portion of the field of view;
alter a sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first portion of the field of view based on the estimation of noise in the first portion of the field of view;
estimate noise in at least some of the signals associated with the second portion of the field of view; and
alter a sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the second portion of the field of view based on the estimation of noise in the second portion of the field of view, wherein the altered sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the second portion differs from the altered sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first portion.

2. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to control at least one light deflector in order to scan the field of view, and wherein a single scanning cycle the field of view includes moving the at least one light deflector such that during the scanning cycle the at least one light deflector is located in a plurality of different instantaneous positions.

3. The LIDAR system of claim 2 , wherein at least one processor is configured to coordinate the at least one light deflector and the at least one light source such that when the at least one light deflector is located at a particular instantaneous position, a light beam is deflected by the at least one light deflector from the at least one light source towards the field of view and reflections from an object in the field of view are deflected by the at least one light deflector toward at least one sensor.

4. The LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alter a sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with a portion of the field of view corresponding to a single instantaneous position of the at least one light deflector.

5. The LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alter a sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with a portion of the field of view corresponding to a plurality of instantaneous positions of the at least one light deflector.

6. The LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alter the sensor sensitivity for first reflections associated with the first portion received in a first scanning cycle, and to alter the sensor sensitivity for second reflections associated with the second portion received in a second scanning cycle.

7. The LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alter the sensor sensitivity for first reflections associated with the first portion and second reflections associated with the second portion, and wherein the first and second reflections are received in a single scanning cycle.

8. The LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to estimate the noise in each portion based on reflections associated with a single position of the at least one light deflector.

9. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to estimate a noise in signals associated with a particular portion of the field of view based on a comparison of signals associated the particular portion of the field of view received in at least one previous scanning cycle.

10. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alter the sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with a third portion of the field of view differing than the first portion and the second portion, based on the estimation of noise in the first portion.

11. The LIDAR system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alter the sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the third portion based on the estimation of noise in both the first portion and the second portion.

12. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to increase an amount of light projected toward the first portion relative to an amount of light projected toward the second portion, when the noise estimation in the first portion is higher than the noise estimation in the second portion.

13. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor sensitivity is a signal-threshold and the at least one processor is further configured to increase the signal-threshold for the first portion relative to the-signal threshold for the second portion, when the noise estimation in the first portion is higher than the noise estimation in the second portion.

14. The LIDAR system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to detect an external light source at a first distance in the first portion and alter the sensor sensitivity differently for reflections associated with the first portion and the second portion, to enable detection of an object at a second distance greater than the first distance in the second portion.

15. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to individually alter the sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first and second portions, such that for a same amount of light projected toward the first portion and the second portion, a detection distance associated with the first portion is higher than a detection distance associated with the second portion.

16. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to individually alter the sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first and second portions, such that for a same amount of light projected toward the first portion and the second portion, an resolution associated with the first portion is higher than an resolution associated with the second portion.

17. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein signals from the at least one sensor further include noise originating from amplification electronics.

18. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the noise includes at least one of dark noise, amplification noise, or ambient noise.

19. The LIDAR system of claim 18 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to individually alter the sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first and second portions and to detect an object in at least one of the first and second portions based on the altered sensor sensitivities.

20. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the signals comprise a combination of reflection measurements and the noise.

21. The LIDAR system of claim 20 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine a distance to an object in at least one of the first and second portions based on the signals.

22. The LIDAR system of claim 20 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to individually alter the sensor sensitivity for reflections associated with the first and second

Assignees

• Innoviz Tech Ltd

Inventors

• Eshel Ronen
• Day Amir
• Steinberg Amit
• Zohar Guy
• Osiroff Nir
• Keilaf Omer David
• Buskila Oren
• Antman Yair

Classifications

• G01S17/04

  Systems determining the presence of a target · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S17/89 Primary

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title

• G01S7/4817 Primary

  relating to scanning · CPC title

• G01S7/4868

  Controlling received signal intensity or exposure of sensor · CPC title