Patent · US Expired

Apparatus for measuring three-dimensional configurations

US5784098A · kind A · utility

150Cited by
11References
87Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 30, 1996
Grant dateJul 21, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 30, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N23/555
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

N lines of line-shaped light are projected onto the object by means of a measuring light projecting lens. The light carrying the image of the object is passed through the eyepiece lens 17 in an endoscope 6 and the auxiliary lens 30 in a measuring head 11 and split into two beamlets by a beam splitter 31, with one beamlet being focused at a position coinciding with the entrance end faces of measuring light's position detecting fibers 33(l) to 33(m). The line-shaped light images of the object thus formed in positions coinciding with the entrance end faces of measuring light's position detecting fibers 33(l) to 33(m) are scanned linearly by those linearly aligned fibers as they are oscillated and driven by a fiber scanner 36. The scanned line-shaped light images are then subjected to the necessary signal processing in a signal processor circuit 35 such as to measure the three-dimensional configuration of the object.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.