VL53L3 Linear Detection of Target

[fafeyto]

Hi everyone,

I know there are 25 and 35 degree detection angles of VL53L3.

I am aware that this situation is a mechanical situation. But I want to make a timing gate and find people's speeds. We have submitted our product to reliability and validity tests, but the detection situation at 25 and 35 degree angles prevents us from getting this reliability and validity tests. We want it to detect when the target is right in front of (linear detection) the sensor. Is there a software solution for this?

[John E KVAM]

Because this issue was elevated, I failed to answer it here. But I should have. 

As a target moves slowly into the Field of View (FoV) as soon as enough photons are returned, the sensor will detect the target. If the target is exceptionally non-reflective quite a bit of the target must cross into the FoV. But if the target is bright (white paper for instance) not much paper will cause a detect. 

And distance matters too. The light dissipates as a square of the distance. So we need more material to return enough photons. 

Effect is that the FoV will appear wider with near, reflective targets and more narrow with duller, more distance targets. The 27 degrees is kind of the mid-point of the detection interval. 

To find a target directly in front is kind of a tricky problem. One might switch to the VL53L1X and use a region of interest to narrow the effective FoV to 5 degrees. 

Or if the target is a constant object and only moves right and left, one could use the signal rate to determine if the target were fully in front of the sensor. This would work well if the distance to the target we adjusted so only when the target was aligned would it fill the entire FoV.