Method of, and apparatus for, furnishing information to determine the position of a body
AssigneeShort Brother PLC
InventorWilliam James Montgomery
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To determine two positional co-ordinates, of a point (D) within a space, a beam (10) a radiation is caused to illuminate a part of the space and is deflected cylindrically over the space, the beam being modulated in phase with the cyclical movement such that the radiation incident upon the point (D) includes enough information to identify the point. Embodiments with rotational (r, θ) and Cartesian (x, y) co-ordinate axes are disclosed.
Claims5
Apparatus for furnishing information sufficient to determine two polor co-ordinated (r, θ) of a point position within a two dimensional bounded space, said polar coordinates measured with respect to a center of said space and a reference angle with said space, comprising:
- means for generating a beam of radiation, and for shaping said beam to illuminate a part only of the space, said part extending from the center to the circumference of the shape, said part including an edge defined by the following equation:
- d=r cos [2πKr]
- where d is a distance between said edge and said reference angle when said part is positioned at a reference position corresponding to said reference angle, K is a constant falling within the range of 0<K≦substantially 0.25, and r is normalized to unit radius,
- means for revolving the beam around the center of the space whereby the beam is incident upon the said point position during discrete spaced periods of time, a duration of said periods of time defining said r coordinate, and
- means for modulating the beam in phase with the revolution of the beam thereby to define said θ co-ordinate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.