Back to results
US 6,459,483 B1Granted
Level with angle and distance measurement apparatus
AssigneeToolz, Ltd.
InventorsDavid C. Shafer, Andrew G. Butler, William R. Burnett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A laser leveling system includes an angle measurement device for determining the position of a laser level relative to a base. The system further includes a mechanism for determining the distance from the laser level to a target.
Claims16
A system comprising:
- a laser leveling system base unit;
- and
- a target,
- wherein said laser leveling system base unit includes:
- a transmitter for transmitting a signal toward said target,
- a receiver to receive said corresponding signal from said target,
- a phase detector coupled to said receiver to receive said corresponding signal, wherein said phase detector detects phase difference between a phase of said signal transmitted by said transmitter and said corresponding signal, and
- a processing unit coupled to said phase detector to receive detected phase differences, wherein said processing unit determines a distance from said base unit to said target in response to said phase differences, wherein said target includes:
- an input adapted to receive said signal transmitted by said transmitter, and
- a transponder coupled to said input to receive said signal transmitted by said transmitter and transmit a corresponding signal to said base unit.
7 more elements
A laser leveling system which allows a determination of the distance between the leveling system and a remote target, comprising:
- an enclosure having two light emitting sources, separated by a distance;
- means for aligning the light beams from each source conjunctively upon a remote target;
- means for measuring the angle between the two beams;
- and,
- means for calculating, from a measurement of the angle between the two beams, the distance between the enclosure and the remote target.
2 more elements
An optical range finding system comprising:
- a light transmitting element for transmitting a signal toward a target object;
- a light receiving element for receiving a signal from said target object;
- an oscillator coupled to said light transmitting element to provide a signal having a frequency;
- a mixer coupled to said light receiving element to receive said signal from said target object and further coupled to said frequency oscillator to receive said signal having a frequency, wherein said mixer outputs a signal having a beat frequency;
- a filter coupled to said mixer to receive said signal having a beat frequency and providing a filtered signal, wherein said filtered signal has a frequency within a predetermined range;
- and
- a processor coupled to said filter to receive said filtered signal, wherein said processor determines a distance between said optical range finding system and said target object based on said filtered signal.
4 more elements
A method of determining a distance from a base unit of a leveling system to a remote target, said method comprising the steps of:
- aligning a first light beam from a first source in said base unit to intercept said remote target;
- aligning a second light beam from a second source to converge with the first light beam on said remote target, wherein said second source is coplanar with said first source;
- measuring an angle between said first light beam and said second light beam;
- and,
- calculating said distance based on said angle.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.