摘要 |
<p>A system for making distance measurements of remote points using a phenomenon related to the time of flight of an illuminating beam. A modulated beam of light is directed at the target area. The modulated beam has temporally varying information impressed upon it, such that the time of flight of the beam to the target and back can be related to the temporal signature of the received beam. An acousto-optic modulator is used to perform frequency conversion of the modulated light reflected from points in the field, before that light impinges on the pixels of a detector array. The AO modulation frequency is close to the illuminating light modulation frequency, so that the converted mixed frequency falls within the limited parallel reading rate range of the detector array, and contains the temporal signature information of the modulated light received from the target within signals of manageable frequencies.</p> |