Method and apparatus for determining the alignment of motor vehicle wheels
US5724743A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 10, 1995 |
| Grant date | Mar 10, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 10, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01B2210/30
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An apparatus for determining the position and/or alignment of objects such as motor vehicle wheels, and including targets for attachment to the objects, a pair of optical sensing means such as television cameras for viewing the targets, an electronic processing means connected to the optical sensing means for processing data relating to images of the targets to determine position and/or alignment information, and a display means for displaying the position and/or alignment information. The optical sensing means view a target located on each object and form an image of each target. Electronic signals corresponding to each of the images are transferred to the electronic processing means which correlates the image signals of each of the targets with the true shape of each target. In so doing, the processing means relates the geometric characteristics and positional interrelationships of certain known elements of the target with the geometric characteristics and positional interrelationships of corresponding elements in the viewed images and calculates the position and/or alignment of the objects to which the targets are attached.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.