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US 5,493,786 AGranted
Real estate electro tape
OwnerChristopher S. Thomsoninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A real estate electro tape is provided that measures the length of an interior or exterior wall or other similar structure using optical means. A sonic tape is used to measure the perpendicular distance from the device to the interior or exterior wall. Two steerable lasers are then used to determine the angles between the perpendicular and the beams aimed at the wall edges. An algorithm is applied to the angular and perpendicular distance data to obtain the length of the wall. A microprocessor performs the calculations, the results of which are displayed on an electro optical display.
Claims10
A real estate electro tape, comprising:
- a. a sonic tape wherein said sonic tape is a conventional ultrasonic laser ranging device whose output is the perpendicular distance (H) to a wall whose length is to be measured;
- b. a first steerable laser, mounted in close proximity to said sonic tape, wherein the light beam from said first steerable laser is aimed at one edge of said wall, such that the angle (.theta..sub.1) between said light beam and said perpendicular can be determined;
- and,
- c. a second steerable laser, mounted in close proximity to said sonic tape, wherein the light beam from said second steerable laser is aimed at the opposite edge of said wall, such that the angle (.theta..sub.2) between said light beam and said perpendicular can be determined;
- so that the total length of the wall, L.sub.T can be determined by the formula:
- L.sub.T =H tan .theta..sub.1 +H tan .theta..sub.2 +2L' where L' is the distance, if any, between said sonic tape and each of said steerable lasers.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.