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US 2009/0153667 A1Published application
Surveying instrument
AssigneeTopcon Corporation
InventorsKaoru Kumagai, Masahiro Saito
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AssigneeTopcon Corporation
InventorsKaoru Kumagai, Masahiro Saito
Estimating the term…
The present invention provides a surveying instrument provided with a tracking function, said surveying instrument comprising a first image pickup means 40 with a first solid image pickup element 33, a second image pickup means 37 with a second solid image pickup element 19, an image pickup control instrument for controlling image pickup conditions of said first image pickup means and said second image pickup means, and a control unit for controlling the tracking operation of a target 36 based on a target image signal obtained at the first solid image pickup element or based on a target image signal obtained at the second solid image pickup element, wherein the first image pickup means can acquire an image in wider range by said second image pickup means, and wherein the image pickup control instrument controls so that a target image is acquired by the first image pickup means when the target image is out of a photodetection range of the target of the second solid image pickup element and controls so that the target image is acquired by the second image pickup means when the target image detected by the first solid image pickup element is within the predetermined range.
A surveying instrument provided with a tracking function, comprising a first image pickup means with a first solid image pickup element, a second image pickup means with a second solid image pickup element, an image pickup control instrument for controlling image pickup conditions of said first image pickup means and said second image pickup means, and a control unit for controlling the tracking operation of a target based on a target image signal obtained at said first solid image pickup element or based on a target image signal obtained at said second solid image pickup element, wherein said first image pickup means can acquire an image in wider range by said second image pickup means, and wherein said image pickup control instrument controls in such manner that a target image is acquired by said first image pickup means when the target image is out of a photodetection range of the target of said second solid image pickup element and controls in such manner that the target image is acquired by said second image pickup means when the target image detected by said first solid image pickup element is within a predetermined range.
A surveying instrument according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the smallest field angle obtained by said second image pickup means is smaller than the smallest field angle obtained by said first image pickup means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.