Intelligent sensor method and apparatus for an optical wheel alignment machine

In a sensor for use in a wheel alignment machine to measure the orientation of a tire on a vehicle, said sensor being of the type having at least one light source oriented to project shaped light onto a sidewall of the tire at a plurality of spaced locations and a light responsive receiver oriented to receive a portion of the shaped light that is reflected off the tire at a perspective angle relative to said light source, with said light responsive receiver being operable to generate electrical signals indicative of the reflected portion of the shaped light, wherein the improvement comprises:

• an event-driven microprocessor circuit connected to receive said electrical signals from said light responsive receiver, said circuit including a microprocessor having an interrupt input;
• said circuit being operable, in response to detecting in real time the presence within the image of the reflected portion of the shaped light, to generate an interrupt request on said interrupt input.

In an optical sensor for generating data indicative of a spatial attribute of an object, said sensor being of the type having at least one light source oriented to project shaped light onto the object at a plurality of spaced locations and a light responsive receiver oriented to receive a portion of the shaped light that is reflected off the object at a perspective angle relative to said light source, with said light responsive receiver being operable to generate electrical signals indicative of the reflected portion of the shaped light, wherein the improvement comprises:

• an event-driven microprocessor circuit connected to receive said electrical signals from said light responsive receiver, said circuit including a microprocessor having an interrupt input;
• said circuit being operable, in response to detecting in real time the presence within the image of the reflected portion of the shaped light, to generate an interrupt request on said interrupt input.

In an optical sensor for generating data indicative of a spatial attribute of an object, said sensor being of the type having at least one light source oriented to project shaped light onto the object at a plurality of spaced locations and a light responsive receiver oriented to receive a portion of the shaped light that is reflected off the object at a perspective angle relative to said light source, with said light responsive receiver being operable to generate electrical signals indicative of the reflected portion of the shaped light, wherein the improvement comprises:

• a system of optical elements oriented relative to said light responsive receiver to provide said light responsive receiver with an optical view that includes the plurality of spaced locations of the object, whereby portions of the shaped light that are reflected off the object at each of the plurality of spaced locations are received by said light responsive receiver as a single image;
• and
• an electronic circuit responsive to said electrical signals to determine the location within the image of a preselected feature of each of the reflected portions of shaped light, said circuit further being operable to generate output data representative of the locations of the preselected features.