Patent attributes
Methods, systems, and apparatuses are provided for measuring and mapping ranges, reflectivities, and/or velocities of multiple locations on an object by illuminating the locations with uniquely frequency-encoded sensing beams, which may be generated using one or more acousto-optic devices. A detector is used to sense the interference of the sensing beams reflected from the object and one or more reference beams, which may be co-propagating with the sensing beams to/from the object and/or may be provided via a separate reference path. A processor is used to estimate lateral coordinates, ranges, reflectivities, and/or velocities of the illuminated locations based on the frequencies, phases, amplitudes, and Doppler shifts, respectively, of the corresponding spectral components of the temporal beat signal produced by the detector in response to the interference of the sensing and reference beams. The processor may also disambiguate the range at each measured location using a pair of closely-spaced spectral components.
