To eliminate the risk of finding an erroneous range by removing the influence of external light, etc., even when the number of sensors constituting a sensor array is increased so as to enable distance measurement for a wide field of view.

The light projection period of IRED (light emitting diode) is made one half of the cyclic period in which electric charges are transferred by a ring CCD (corresponding to 12 clocks of the clock CK1), and during this period, a light emitting element is turned on and off for two cycles (on →off → on → off). In each on-off cycle, electric charges originating from the external light and signal light and other electric charges originating only from external light are supplied in individual accumulation parts with the pulse ST1 and pulse ST2 pulses, respectively. This lessens the change amount in the intensity of the external light per on-off cycle of light projection from the IRED, and the external light component can be removed substantially if the difference between on and off in light projection is taken.