Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Seiichiro Otake

Tetsuo Fujii

Yasuaki Makino

Tiaki Mizuno

Yoshimi Yoshino

Hirohito Shioya

Tadashi Kamada

An apparatus for optically detecting the attachment state of extraneous matters to a translucent shield member. The optically detecting apparatus comprises a light-emitting unit having a plurality of light-emitting elements each emitting a light ray toward the translucent shield member, a photoelectric transducer unit having a plurality of transducer elements each receiving each of the light rays reflected on the translucent shield member, and a data processing unit coupled to the transducer unit. The transducer unit generates detection signals corresponding to the quantities of the received light rays and the data processing unit successively compares the level of each of the detection signals with a predetermined level to produce binary signals in accordance with the results of the comparison so that a binary signal pattern is defined at the respective transducer elements. The data processing unit determines the attachment state of the extraneous matters to the translucent shield member by comparing the defined binary signal pattern with a reference pattern.

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Aichi, Japan

Seiichiro Otake