Optical proximity imaging method and apparatus
US4681451A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 28, 1986 |
| Grant date | Jul 21, 1987 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 28, 2006 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01B11/306
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An optical proximity imaging method and apparatus in which the proximity of glass surface to another surface is determined by frustration of total internal reflection of light energy from the glass surface to develop a light area pattern, calibrating gray scale densities of the pattern so that levels of density correspond to increments of surface proximity, and displaying a facsimile of the gray scale image to indicate variations in surface proximity. The pattern of frustrated totally reflected light energy is preferably magnified and the magnified image recorded by a television camera, the output of which is fed, in a preferred embodiment, to an oscilloscope capable of displaying a three axis image in which one of the three axes is determined by variation in gray scale density. In another embodiment, the output of the television camera is fed through a colorizer to assign different colors to different gray scale densities and a colored facsimile of the pattern image presented on a CRT screen.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.