System and method of light spot position and color detection

A system for detecting a position of a light spot in a light distribution comprising:

• a first discrete response position sensitive detector (DRPSD) of length L1 having a first prescribed number of photo-sensitive pixels for determining an estimate of the light spot position;
• a second discrete response position sensitive detector (DRPSD) of length L2 having a second prescribed number of photo-sensitive pixels operating within a window of prescribed width approximately centered about the estimate of the light spot position determined by the first discrete response position sensitive detector, the length L1 being substantially equal to the length L2;
• means for receiving a photo-generated signal from each of the photo-sensitive pixels from the first DRPSD;
• and
• means for comparing the received photo-generated signals to determine which one of the photo-sensitive pixels from the first DRPSD has the highest photo-generated signal, the highest photo-generated signal being representative of the estimate of the light spot position;
• wherein the first prescribed number of photo-sensitive pixels of the first DRPSD is equal to 2n, each being of a first prescribed pixel size;
• the second prescribed number of photo-sensitive pixels of the second DRPSD is equal to 2k, each being of a second prescribed pixel size, where n≦k and the first prescribed pixel size being larger than the second prescribed pixel size.