Photometrics, Ltd.

Wyko, Inc.

Keith N Prettyjohns

Stephen L Marcus

James C Wyant

Kevin J Garcia

Stephen F Sagan

Apparatus for determining the luminous intensity distribution of an automotive head light employs a curved mirror and a curved screen. A solid state camera is used to obtain a pattern of the head light output from the screen. The system requires a relatively small black box into which the head light output is directed. A beam splitter may be employed to relax the constraints on the positioning of the various components within the box. The setting of the test lamp to first and to second preset lateral angular positions at each of which a pattern is captured and the combining of the two patterns permits the use of components which are practical. The use of a linear CCD array permits economies to be obtained by rotating the test lamp or by scanning the linear array over a sequence of angular positions and by constructing a composite pattern from the patterns so generated. In an alternative embodiment, no beam splitter is used. Instead, the arrangement is an off axis arrangement which employs an aspheric lens at the input to the apparatus to reduce spot size at the screen and to improve the angular resolution measurement capability.

Apparatus with off-axis light path for characterizing the luminous

A multi-mode apparatus for capturing light patterns emitted or absorbed by a planar sample, such as an electropheresis gel, is made possible by a unique tray and sample holder system which positions a sample at a pre-determined focal plane of the solid state camera integral to the apparatus. Each sample is fixed in a sample holder specific to the mode of labeling of the sample. The tray is configured to retain each sample holder at a different elevation with respect to the side walls of the tray for proper placement of the sample at the focal plane. The tray side walls are adapted to position a sample holder at the proper elevation depending on the sampling mode and illumination technique selected. The sample holder includes a combination of transparent, translucent, or opaque plates designed to allow illumination and imaging of the sample for the particular labeling method employed.

Multi-mode imaging apparatus for radiation-emitting or absorbing samples

Apparatus for determining the luminous intensity distribution of an automotive head light employs a curved mirror and a curved screen. A solid state camera is used to obtain a pattern of the head light output from the screen. The system requires a relatively small black box into which the head light output is directed. A beam splitter may be employed to relax the constraints on the positioning of the various components within the box. The setting of the test lamp to first and to second preset lateral angular positions at each of which a pattern is captured and the combining of the two patterns permits the use of components which are practical. The use of a linear CCD array permits economies to be obtained by rotating the test lamp or the linear array over a sequence of angular positions and by constructing a composite pattern from the patterns so generated.

Apparatus and method for characterizing the luminous intensity of a lamp

An optical profiler includes a two-beam interferometer. An interference pattern produced thereby is focused onto an array of photocells. Phase shift in a reference beam of the interferometer is produced by accelerating a piezoelectric transducer supporting the interferometer mirror to a constant velocity. The velocity is maintained constant for at least 360.degree. of phase shift, during which four integrated buckets are obtained from each photocell. The outputs of the photodetector array are continuously integrated and effectively read out every 90.degree. of phase shift of the reference beam by a computer that computes a first value of phase corresponding to each photocell output from the first, second, and third integrated buckets produced by that photocell and a second phase value from the second, third, and fourth integrated bucket values obtained from that photocell. The two phase values are averaged, eliminating the effects of sinusoidal noise produced by inaccuracies in the reference beam phase at which integrated buckets are initiated and terminated. Data points at which intensity modulation produced by the reference beam phase variation is less than a noise threshold are masked from phase calculations. The intensity of the interferometer light source is automatically controlled by averaging intensity of the intereference pattern at angles that differ by 180.degree. to cancel out the effects of the interference and obtain an average intensity. The lamp voltage is automatically adjusted to maintain the average intensity.

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Keith N Prettyjohns