A method includes steps of measuring a distance in a straight line to an object within a target area by means of a range finder; storing object data indicative of the measured distance in a memory; repeating the above steps a plurality of times; and comparing n-th object data with (n-1)-th object data to detect whether the object changes in distance to the range finder; whereby recognizing a behavior of the object, and a system includes; a range finder for measuring a distance in a straight line to an object within a target area to output distance data corresponding to the measured distance means for periodically sampling the output distance data; a memory for storing the sampled distance data as object data and means for comparing n-th object data with (n-1)-th object data to output a judging signal representing whether the object changes in distance to the range finder when a difference between both the object data exceeds a predetermined value.