Methods, systems, and apparatus for dynamically adjusting radiated signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11822019-B2
Application number	US-202016736510-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 7, 2020
Priority date	Aug 31, 2016
Publication date	Nov 21, 2023
Grant date	Nov 21, 2023

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for providing dynamically adjusted radiated signals are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of detecting one or more objects in a path of travel of a vehicle may include generating a laser with radiated power. The method may further include emitting the laser in a direction of travel of the vehicle and receiving one or more reflections of the emitted laser reflected from the one or more objects located in the direction of travel of the vehicle. The method may also further include generating a signal indicating that the one or more objects are in a path of the vehicle based on the received one or more reflections. The method may also include dynamically adjusting the radiated power of the laser based on an input corresponding to one or more of (i) a current speed of the vehicle or (ii) a current position of the vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of detecting one or more objects approaching a path of travel of a vehicle, comprising:
generating a first laser signal transmission having a first radiated power in a direction other than the path of travel;
determining that no reflections of the first laser signal transmission off of objects in the direction other than the path of travel are received;
generating a second laser signal transmission having a second radiated power in the direction other than the path of travel in response to determining that no reflections of the first laser signal transmissions off of objects in the direction other than the path of travel were received, wherein the second radiated power is greater than the first radiated power, and wherein the greater radiated power includes a greater beam diameter;
receiving one or more reflections of the second laser signal transmission reflected from the one or more objects located in the direction other than the path of travel of the vehicle;
generating an indication that the one or more objects are proximate to a path of the vehicle based on the received one or more reflections;
dynamically adjusting the radiated power of the second laser signal transmission based on (i) a current speed of the vehicle or (ii) a current position of the vehicle, or a combination thereof; and
limiting the radiated power of the second laser signal transmission based on a maximum power threshold, wherein the maximum power threshold is adjusted based upon a speed limit associated with the current position of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the current speed from one or more of a GPS device or a speedometer and wherein the current position is received from the GPS device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein dynamically adjusting the radiated power of the laser transmission comprises dynamically adjusting the radiated power of the laser transmission based on the current speed of the vehicle, wherein the current speed of the vehicle is linearly related to the radiated power of the laser transmission such that as the current speed of the vehicle increases, the radiated power increases, and as the current speed of the vehicle decreases, the radiated power decreases.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining an adjustment for the radiated power of the laser transmission based on one or more calculations using the current speed or the current position of the vehicle as a variable in the one or more calculations.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining an adjustment for the radiated power of the laser transmission based on correlated radiated power and speed information stored in a memory.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the maximum power threshold is adjusted based upon a proximity of a school to the current position of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first speed of the vehicle will result in a first radiated power of the laser transmission and a second speed of the vehicle that is greater than the first speed will result in a second radiated power of the laser transmission that is greater than the first radiated power.

8. An apparatus for detecting one or more objects approaching a path of travel of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
an optical circuit comprising a laser and configured to:
generate a first laser signal transmission having a radiated power in a direction other than the path of travel,
determine that no reflections of the first laser signal transmission off of objects in the direction other than the path of travel are received,
generate a second laser signal transmission having a second radiated power in the direction other than the path of travel in response to determining that no reflections of the first laser signal transmission off of objects in the direction other than the path of travel were received, wherein the second radiated power is greater than the first radiated power, and wherein the greater radiated power includes a greater beam diameter,
receive one or more reflections of the second laser signal transmission reflected from the one or more objects in the direction other than the path of travel of the vehicle, and
generate an indication that the one or more objects are proximate to a path of the vehicle based on the received one or more reflections;

a controller configured to dynamically adjust the radiated power of the second laser signal transmission based on (i) a current speed of the vehicle or (ii) a current position of the vehicle, or a combination thereof, wherein the controller is further configured to limit the radiated power of the second laser signal transmission based on a maximum power threshold, wherein the maximum power threshold is adjusted based upon a speed limit associated with the current position of the vehicle.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the current speed is received from one or more of a GPS device and a speedometer and wherein the current position is received from the GPS device.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the radiated power of the laser is dynamically adjusted based on the current speed of the vehicle, wherein the current speed of the vehicle is linearly related to the radiated power of the laser such that as the current speed of the vehicle increases, the radiated power increases, and as the current speed of the vehicle decreases, the radiated power decreases.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine an adjustment for the radiated power of the laser based on one or more calculations using the current speed or the current position of the vehicle as a variable.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine an adjustment for the radiated power of the laser based on correlated radiated power and speed information stored in a memory.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to adjust the maximum power threshold based upon a proximity of a school to the current position of the vehicle.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a first speed of the vehicle will result in a first radiated power of the laser and a second speed of the vehicle that is greater than the first speed will result in a second radiated power of the laser that is greater than the first radiated power.

15. An apparatus for detecting one or more objects approaching a path of travel of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
means for generating a first laser signal transmission having a first radiated power in a direction other than the path of travel;
means for determining that no reflections of the first laser signal transmission off of objects in the direction other than the path of travel are received;
means for generating a second laser signal transmission having a second radiated power in the direction other than the path of travel in response to determining that no reflections of the first laser signal transmissions off of objects in the direction other than the path of travel are received, wherein the second radiated power is greater than the first radiated power, and wherein the greater radiated power includes a greater beam diameter;
means for receiving one or more reflections of the second laser signal transmission reflected from the one or more objects located in the direction other than the path of travel the vehicle;
means for generating an indication that the one or more objects are proximate to a path of the vehicle based on the received one or more reflections;
means for dynamically adjusting the radiated power of th

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Raina Manav
• Slobodyanyuk Volodimir

Classifications

• B60W30/16

  Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle · CPC title

• G01S7/4911 Primary

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S7/489

  Gain of receiver varied automatically during pulse-recurrence period · CPC title

• G01S17/04

  Systems determining the presence of a target · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title