Wavetronix SmartSensor HD, User Manual

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Chapter 1: Choosing a Mounting Location
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Occlusion and multipathing
These are two problems you might face while using a radar
detector.
Figure 4. Occlusion
Occlusion occurs when one object blocks another object from the
sensor’s view, as shown above. This can happen with
˿
Tall vehicles like semi trucks
˿
Signs
˿
Barriers and sounding walls
˿
Trees and more
Normal
detection
Signal that doesn’t
return to sensor is
scattered
Signal bouncing
off wall causes
false detection
Figure 5.
Left: direct path return; right: multipath return
Multipathing occurs when a large flat surface near the sensor inter-
feres with detection. A radar signal can bounce around several
times between the surface and the vehicles before returning to the
sensor. This can make the sensor detect a vehicle where there is
none.