Non-contact dimensional measurement technique
AssigneeBAI Corporation
InventorMarc G. Dreyfus
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A high-speed technique for making accurate dimensional measurements of objects without physically touching the objects. The technique involves generating a low-divergence, collimated light beam which acts to silhouette the object to be measured to produce an image thereof that can be viewed and analyzed by a programmed electro-optical scanner in a manner yielding highly accurate dimensional information substantially independent of the location of the object relative to the viewer.
Claims11
An electro-optical technique for the non-contact gauging of an object, said technique comprising the steps of illuminating the object with a low-divergence light beam acting to silhouette the object to produce an image thereof whose outline is defined by a Fresnel diffraction.
An electro-optical system for the non-contact gauging of an object, said system comprising:
- A. means to illuminate the object with a low-divergence beam acting to silhouette the object to produce an image thereof whose outline is defined by a Fresnel diffraction zone;
- B. means to scan said image along a given path to produce a video signal representing the varying brightness of the zone intersected by said path;
- C. level detection means to analyze said video signal representing the varying brightness of the zone intersected by the scan path to fix the point in the zone whose brightness is about 25% of the brightness which would exist in the absence of the object to produce a data signal;
- and
- D. data processing means responsive to said data signal to derive information therefrom regarding a dimension of said object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.