[Jeff Lopez]

Reading upon this Ricoh patent, granted last April:

Ricoh : Patent Issued for Distance Measuring Device and Distance Measuring Method (USPTO 9605944) | 4-Traders

I had to read several times to get an idea what its all about, and the more I read , the more I thought "this is similar to a fly compound eye"
So if I read correctly, Ricoh would put an micro lens array after the sensor to reprocess an image for focus evaluation..??

[RobA_Oz]

What I gather from this is that the distance evaluation using a stereoscopic camera can be improved if highlight blowouts and shadow blocking can be eliminated by using an array of lenses set at different apertures. How that would work in practice isn't clear from the description given.

[monochrome]

I think this is an automotive application. Machine Vision will replace radio-sensing (RADAR) devices for autonomous mobility and safety. This would be one of the automotive application devices Ricoh plans to manufacture in the former compact camera Plants.

[RobA_Oz]

The low-speed automatic braking in my new DS3 uses camera vision to do just that.

[Jeff Lopez]

it says "such as" not "from a", so I guess it could be from any type of camera..
But this is the most interesting part.."there is provided a distance measuring method including a step of receiving incident light from an object on an imaging element array via a lens array including plural lenses with different numerical apertures to output image information, and a step of calculating a distance to the object based on the image information"

in a way that its being suggested a second layer of lens reading after what the sensor reads..

---------- Post added 06-18-17 at 02:12 PM ----------

The low-speed automatic braking in my new DS3 uses camera vision to do just that.

nice car!

[RobA_Oz]

it says "such as" not "from a", so I guess it could be from any type of camera..
But this is the most interesting part.."there is provided a distance measuring method including a step of receiving incident light from an object on an imaging element array via a lens array including plural lenses with different numerical apertures to output image information, and a step of calculating a distance to the object based on the image information"

in a way that its being suggested a second layer of lens reading after what the sensor reads.

Patent descriptions tend to be written in a way that makes some parts of the process difficult to comprehend, unless you know precisely what the writer had in mind, which seems paradoxical, but I guess is their way of obscuring vital parts without compromising the integrity of the patent. It's the sort of thing that keeps patent attorneys and lawyers busy.

nice car!

Thanks, Jeff. You probably don't get to see many Stateside!