full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sajan Saini: How do self-driving cars "see"?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


LIDAR fires a train of super-short laser pulses to give depth resolution. Take the mosoe on the ctnoury road. As the car drives by, one LIDAR pulse scatters off the base of its antlers, while the next may taervl to the tip of one alnetr before binocung back. meiranusg how much lnoegr the second pulse takes to return provides data about the antler’s shape. With a lot of short pulses, a LIDAR system quickly renders a detailed profile.

The most obvious way to create a pulse of light is to switch a lsaer on and off. But this makes a laser unstable and affects the precise timing of its pulses, which limits dtpeh resolution. Better to leave it on, and use something else to periodically block the light reliably and rapidly.

Open Cloze


LIDAR fires a train of super-short laser pulses to give depth resolution. Take the _____ on the _______ road. As the car drives by, one LIDAR pulse scatters off the base of its antlers, while the next may ______ to the tip of one ______ before ________ back. _________ how much ______ the second pulse takes to return provides data about the antler’s shape. With a lot of short pulses, a LIDAR system quickly renders a detailed profile.

The most obvious way to create a pulse of light is to switch a _____ on and off. But this makes a laser unstable and affects the precise timing of its pulses, which limits _____ resolution. Better to leave it on, and use something else to periodically block the light reliably and rapidly.

Solution


  1. laser
  2. bouncing
  3. depth
  4. moose
  5. longer
  6. travel
  7. country
  8. antler
  9. measuring

Original Text


LIDAR fires a train of super-short laser pulses to give depth resolution. Take the moose on the country road. As the car drives by, one LIDAR pulse scatters off the base of its antlers, while the next may travel to the tip of one antler before bouncing back. Measuring how much longer the second pulse takes to return provides data about the antler’s shape. With a lot of short pulses, a LIDAR system quickly renders a detailed profile.

The most obvious way to create a pulse of light is to switch a laser on and off. But this makes a laser unstable and affects the precise timing of its pulses, which limits depth resolution. Better to leave it on, and use something else to periodically block the light reliably and rapidly.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
depth resolution 3
country road 2
integrated photonics 2


Important Words


  1. affects
  2. antler
  3. antlers
  4. base
  5. block
  6. bouncing
  7. car
  8. country
  9. create
  10. data
  11. depth
  12. detailed
  13. drives
  14. fires
  15. give
  16. laser
  17. leave
  18. lidar
  19. light
  20. limits
  21. longer
  22. lot
  23. measuring
  24. moose
  25. obvious
  26. periodically
  27. precise
  28. profile
  29. pulse
  30. pulses
  31. quickly
  32. rapidly
  33. reliably
  34. renders
  35. resolution
  36. return
  37. road
  38. scatters
  39. shape
  40. short
  41. switch
  42. system
  43. takes
  44. timing
  45. tip
  46. train
  47. travel
  48. unstable