Scaling device for photographic images

US6891148B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as Represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronatics and Space Administration · US

Inventors

• Jorge E. Rivera · Titusville, US
• Robert C. Youngquist · Cocoa, US
• Robert B. Cox · Cinnaminson, US
• William D. Haskell · Mims, US
• Charles G. Stevenson · Mims, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 25, 2002
• Grant date: May 10, 2005
• Expiry date: Dec 4, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01C11/00
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A scaling device projects a known optical pattern into the field of view of a camera, which can be employed as a reference scale in a resulting photograph of a remote object, for example. The device comprises an optical beam projector that projects two or more spaced, parallel optical beams onto a surface of a remotely located object to be photographed. The resulting beam spots or lines on the object are spaced from one another by a known, predetermined distance. As a result, the size of other objects or features in the photograph can be determined through comparison of their size to the known distance between the beam spots. Preferably, the device is a small, battery-powered device that can be attached to a camera and employs one or more laser light sources and associated optics to generate the parallel light beams. In a first embodiment of the invention, a single laser light source is employed, but multiple parallel beams are generated thereby through use of beam splitting optics. In another embodiment, multiple individual laser light sources are employed that are mounted in the device parallel to one another to generate the multiple parallel beams.