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US 4,536,651 AGranted
Optical weighing scale utilizing a prism
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorThomas W. Bosse
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical transducer that uses a prism for the purpose of determining a load applied thereto which may be used to find the weight of an object. In accordance with known optical principals, when a load is applied to a material such as plastic, glass, crystal and the like, its index of refraction changes. By measuring the change of intensity of light internally reflected from a prism made of such material, the magnitude of a load applied thereto can be determined.
Claims7
An optical transducer comprising:
- an optical prism, means for supporting said prism, means for selectively applying a load to said prism parallel to said support means, means for directing light to said prism substantially normal to the direction said load is applied and means for determining the magnitude of said load by measuring the intensity of light internally reflected from said prism.
In a method of determining the magnitude of a load upon a prism, the steps comprising:
- supporting a prism, selectively applying a load to the prism parallel to the support, directing light to one face of the prism normal to the direction the load is applied and determining the magnitude of the load by measuring the intensity of light internally reflected from the prism.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.