Sick Ag

Josef Baak

Olaf Machul

Sascha Thoss

Torsten Neuhaeuser

Matthias Heinz

Stefan Jacob

Thorsten Pfister

A 3D time-of-flight camera for detecting three-dimensional image data from a detection zone is provided, the 3D time-of-flight camera comprising an illumination unit for transmitting transmission light that is modulated with a first modulation frequency; an image sensor having a plurality of reception elements for generating a respective reception signal; a plurality of demodulation units for demodulating the reception signals with the first modulation frequency in order to obtain sampled values; and a control and evaluation unit that is configured to control the illumination unit and/or the demodulation units for a number of measurement repetitions, in each case with a different phase shift between the first modulation frequency for the transmission light and the first modulation frequency for the demodulation, and that is configured to determine a distance value from the sampled values obtained per light reception element by the measurement repetitions. In this respect, the control and evaluation unit is furthermore configured to change the number of measurement repetitions.

3D time-of-flight camera and method of detecting three-dimensional image data

The invention relates to an inductive proximity sensor for determining the presence and/or the distance of an electrically conductive object which is designed to evaluate an oscillation in the form of an analog signal whose amplitude depends on the presence or absence and/or on the distance of an electrically conductive object. In accordance with the invention, the inductive proximity sensor includes at least one A/D converter which converts this analog signal into a digital input signal and includes at least one mixer which multiplies the digital input signal by a digital reference signal to form a digital output signal, wherein the digital reference signal is identical to the digital input signal or only differs from the digital input signal by a constant factor. The invention further relates to a method for determining the presence and/or the distance of an electrically conductive object with the aid of a proximity sensor.

Inductive proximity sensor

A relative position of two articles is determined by generating a magnetic field using a magnetic element of a first article and determining a first measurement value and a second measurement value using a sensor arrangement of a second article, with the first and the second measurement values correlated to the size of the magnetic field in two different spatial directions and correspond to two different magnetic field components. The sensor arrangement is selected such that the first magnetic field component is essentially parallel to the direction of relative movement of the articles and the second magnetic field component is essentially perpendicular to the relative direction of movement of the articles. A difference signal of the absolute magnitudes of the first and second measured values is used to determine the relative position of the first and second articles. A position detector is also provided.

Method and apparatus for position detection

A magnetic sensor for determining positions of an activation magnet along a monitored distance with at least two sensor elements. Both sensor elements are subjected to at least one component of a magnetic field of the activation magnet. An evaluation unit coupled to the sensor element generates at least one switching element that corresponds to a desired magnet position. Each sensor element is operative over the entire monitored distance, and for each desired magnet position there is one unambiguous group of signal values which is used by the sensor elements for generating the switching signals in the evaluation unit.

Magnetic sensor

A sensing system having at least one magnetic or inductive sensor for determining the position of a piston. The sensor system has a positioning device with which at least two sensing positions for the sensing system can be set and adjusted.

Growing community of inventors

Waldkirch, Germany

Josef Baak