Optical rangefinder
AssigneeLeica Geosystems AG
InventorsBernhard Gächter, Urs Vokinger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In order to improve target illumination a light emitter comprises several partial light sources (3a, 3b, 3c, 3d), the partial beams (5a, 5b, 5c, 5d) of which are collected by means of a beam collector optic (2) and directed to the aperture of a collimator (1). The beam collector optic (2) comprises two half-mirrored sheets (12a, 12b), which each direct two similarly polarized partial beams (5a, b; 5c, d) side by side onto a polarization cube (13), where the pairs of partial beams which are polarized perpendicular and orthogonal to each other are overlaid.
Claims19
Optical rangefinder having an emitter which comprises a collimator and a light source arranged before said collimator, and having a receiver and a control and evaluation unit, said light source comprising a plurality of partial light sources, each having a laser diode and all laser diodes emitting at substantially the same wavelength, and a beam-collecting optical system which is arranged after said partial light sources and collects the partial beams emitted by said partial light sources and directs them into an aperture of said collimator wherein the partial beams are directed into the aperture of the collimator in such a way that the partial beams overlap substantially or slightly and the partial beams propagate substantially parallel from said collimator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.