Development of optical proximity sensor: ORANGES system-optical range sensor with circular scanning

In this paper, we describe a method of range finding to an attentive local area of an object by a novel optical proximity sensor; ORANGES system, which is an abbreviation of an Optical RANGE Sensor system. ORANGES system is provided with a function of optical range sensing sequentially at each point along a circular path which is a locus of circular scanning of a laser beam projection. The prototype of the ORANGES system uses both circular scanning and the range sensing mechanisms.