An optic flow sensor is provided which employs a plurality of photoreceptors and which produces a final optic flow signal that is a robust measurement of the optic flow as seen by the photoreceptors. Each array of a plurality of feature detector arrays receives, as input, photoreceptor signals from the receptors and generates a plurality of feature signals based thereon. Each optic flow measuring circuit or algorithm of a plurality of optic flow measuring circuits or algorithms receives, as inpu...

A method for determining the relative motion of a surface with respect to a measurement device comprising: illuminating the surface from a source with incident illumination, such that illumination is reflected from portions of the surface toward a detector; spatially filtering the reflected illumination such that the phase of the detected optical illumination from a given scatterer on the surface is substantially constant or linearly related to the translation of the surface; generating a signal...

The object-detection device for vehicle provides a transmission-and-reception device; a reflection point calculation device; a segment setting device; a median point calculation device; and a relative speed calculation device, wherein the relative speed calculation device eliminates a calculation result of the relative speed in the car width direction, with respect to the reflection points calculated based on the electromagnetic waves which are irradiated to the most downward direction in the sp...

The disclosed method of measuring the flow of a fluid with a porous particulate ceramic tracer and an optical instrument is characterized in that spherical particles having diameters in the range of 0.5 to 150 .mu.m are used as the tracer. Inasmuch as the tracer particles for flow measurement are spherical, the sectional area of scattered light to be detected by an optical sensor means is constant regardless of the orientation of particles. Furthermore, spherical particles have no surface irregu...

Apparatus for measuring the velocity of, for example, an aircraft includes two optical units spaced a predetermined distance apart along an axis, there being a plurality of pairs of associated radiation detectors, with each pair of detectors having one detector in each unit, the planes of lines of sight of each pair of detectors extending parallel to each other, with these planes of different pairs of detectors being inclined relative to each other, in a measurement period, comparing means of th...

A technique for relative velocity determination between a surface and a velocity determination system involves capturing a set of outputs from a first photosensor array and then comparing subsequently captured sets of outputs from a second photosensor array to the set of outputs from the first photosensor array until a satisfactory match is found between the outputs. Once a satisfactory match is found, the elapsed time between the capture of the two sets of outputs represents the time to travel ...

A method for estimating motion with at least one laser radar is disclosed. The method involves scanning a first range image at a first time, locating a plurality of object features in the first range image, scanning a second range image at a second time, receiving motion data for a time period between the first and second times, and locating the plurality of object features in the second range image based, at least in part, on the motion data to determine an orientation of the object. Based on t...

A probe comprises a sealed first tube part terminating at one end in a wiw with an open support extending away from the window and constituting an extension of the tube and carrying a reflection device such that incident light beams passing through the window and onto the reflector are reflected to converge on a measurement point within the open support intermediate of the reflector and window. A light detection device within the sealed tube protects the variations of light on the measurement po...

One embodiment relates to a method of velocity prediction using a sensor array. Differential signals are obtained from the sensor array at multiple frame rates. A first velocity prediction is determined from the differential signals at a first frame rate, and a second velocity prediction is determined from the differential signals at a second frame rate. Another embodiment relates to an optical navigation apparatus which includes a sensor array, differential circuitry, driver circuitry, and a si...

A laser Doppler velocimeter is formed using erbium-doped fiber as the lasing medium. The fiber is diode-pumped. By properly modulating the lasing in the fiber, pulses of radiation may be generated. A telescope acts as the transmission device to focus the radiation at a specified point, and may also act as the receiving system for reflected radiation. The portion of the reflected radiation collected by the receiving system is analyzed to determine the Doppler shift caused by aerosols or objects a...