Tilt head camera for interferometric analysis of tires

Abstract

An adjustable camera is operative to perform interferometric analysis of areas on the surface of an object such as a vehicle tire using light from a coherent source. The camera mechanism includes vertical guides projecting upwardly from a support moveable in the horizontal plane along the base. A slide is adjustable vertically along the guides and carries a camera housing that is adjustable relative to the slide about a horizontal pivot axis. A coherent light source is fixed relative to the base and projects its beam parallel to the adjustment of the guide support. An optical element on the guide support projects the beam upwardly parallel to the guides to a mirror which reflects the beam horizontally about the pivot axis of the housing. A beam splitter divides the beams into an object beam and a reference beam. The object beam is projected out of the housing to illuminate a surface of the tire and cause light to be reflected to a film section supported in the housing. The camera housing may be moved horizontally and vertically and tilted to various angles to analyze various sections of the tire, without impairing the required positional relationship to the coherent light source.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.