Patent · US Expired

Device for distance measurement

US5949531A · kind A · utility

39Cited by
5References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 3, 1998
Grant dateSep 7, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 3, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S7/4813
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A device for measuring distance with a visible measuring beam (11) generated by a semiconductor laser (10), has a collimator object lens (12) to collimate the measuring beam towards the optical axis (13) of the collimator object lens (12), an arrangement to modulate the measuring radiation, a reception object lens (15) to receive and image the measuring beam reflected from a distant object (16) on a receiver, a switchable beam deflection device (28) to generate an internal reference path between the semiconductor laser (10) and the receiver and an electronic evaluation device (25) to find and display the distance measured from the object. According to the invention, the receiver contains a light guide (17') with a downstream opto-electronic transducer (24), in which the light guide inlet surface (17) is arranged in the imaging plane of the reception object lens (15) for long distances from the object and can be controllably moved (18') from this position (18) transversely to the optical axis (14). In an alternative embodiment, the light inlet surface (17) is fixed and there are optical means (36) outside the optical axis (14) of the reception object lens (15) which, for short objec…

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