Patent · US Expired

Method and device for determining the direction in which an object is located

US6297497A · kind A · utility

2Cited by
1References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 25, 1998
Grant dateOct 2, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 25, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S3/783
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

The invention concerns a method and device for determining the direction of an object (10) which emits or reflects optical radiation. An optical element (14) which structures the wavefront of the radiation converts the conventional dot-type image (20) into an intensity distribution (14') with more than one maximum on a locally resolving opto-electronic detector (13). From the intensity distribution (14') and the structure function of the optical element (14), the direction of the object (10) can be determined with a high degree of accuracy over a wide measurement range. In addition, this gives a design with a shorter optical path length and very few optical components.

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