Other

Hewlett-packard Company

William J Beecher

Pradeep Rajkomar

A x-y array of light emitting diodes has insert molded leadframes to minimize manufacturing costs during assembly.

Bi-level injection molded leadframe

An eccentric or off-center positive achromatic lens for attachment to the objective lenses of a binocular instrument in pairs, to the end that their counter-rotation, toward or away from each other, so moves the separate images formed by the two binocular telescopes as to fuse them into a single, stereoscopic image at approximately reading distance. The lenses are especially adapted to light-weight, high-quality spectacle binoculars, permitting the hands to remain free. They adapt such a binocular to become a stereomicroscope, ideal for highly-detailed dental work, micro-surgery and small-parts assembly. Suitable means is provided, in the form of a pair of grooved, rotatable tubes, containing the pair of asymmetrical lenses, to turn them in unison by means of an elastic belt to effect the stereoscopic fusion.

Eccentric close-up lens converting a binocular into a stereomicroscope

In a binocular employing mirrors in place of Porro prisms as an erector system, including a pair of telescopes each having a hollow body shell, a plurality of mirrors in the shell and arranged to provide a folded light path therethrough, eyepiece and objective barrels mounted on the shell and having, respectively, eyepiece and objective lenses therein and disposed at opposite ends of the light path, such mirrors being ovally-shaped and sized to conform to the respective cross sections thereat of the light bundle transmitted by the objective lenses, the shell defining an internal arcuate mirror rim-receiving surface for each of the mirrors and a portion of the rim of each mirror being adhesively secured to the receiving surface therefor by an elastic adhesive; and hinge structure including a hinge post connecting the telescopes together for adjustment of the interpupillary spacing of the eyepiece barrels, the improvement being that each mirror pair is first mounted at right angles in a hood-shaped cover, which is then delivered for elastic cementing into the binocular body shell instead of cementing the mirrors into the body shell first. The cover comprises two flat oval plates at right angles, each having three conical bosses to the apices of which the back side of a mirror is permanently cemented for collimating purposes before the cover is cemented into the body shell with an elastic adhesive which will fix the mirror edges elastically to arcuate matching surfaces of the shell wall at the same time the hood-like cover is cemented to matching surfaces of the body shell to close and complete the binocular.

Binocular using collimating mirror to replace porro prisms

An easily-adjusted spectacle frame, designed to co-operate with the compact and lightweight binocular of patent application Ser. No. 344,062, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,790, entitled BINOCULAR AND SPECTACLE TYPE MOUNTING ASSEMBLY THEREFOR, of which this application is a continuation in part. A primary object of the invention is to permit accurate alignment before the eyes of the user of a high performance 7 power binocular for wearing comfort comparable to that in ordinary eyeglasses. This requires that the binocular have the hinge connecting the paired telescopes tapped for a set-screw, which slides in a verticle slot located at the nose bridge of the spectacle bow. This adjusts for the up-and-down movements of the eyepieces as the binocular hinge is opened and closed to accommodate the varying interpupillary requirements of users, whether the eyes be close together or wide apart. A major feature is that the spectacle frame is completely unseen by the wearer.

Spectacle type mounting assembly for binocular

A binocular includes a pair of telescopes each having a hollow body shell, a plurality of mirrors in the shell and arranged to provide a folded light path therethrough, eyepiece and objective barrels mounted on the shell and having, respectively, eyepiece and objective lenses therein and disposed at opposite ends of the light path, such mirrors being ovally-shaped and sized substantially to conform to the respective cross sections thereat of the light bundle transmitted by the objective lenses, the shell defining an internal arcuate mirror rim-receiving surface for each of the mirrors, and a portion of the rim only of each mirror being adhesively secured to the receiving surface therefor by an elastic adhesive; and hinge structure including a hinge post connecting the telescopes together for adjustment of the interpupillary spacing of the eyepiece barrels, such hinge post having a tapped hole therein. A spectacle-type mounting assembly for such binocular includes a spectacle frame embodying a bow and a pair of earpieces extending from opposite ends of the bow, first mounting structure centrally secured to the bow, second mounting structure including a threaded shank adapted for threadedly engaging the binocular hinge post in the hole therein, and structure for securing the first and second mounting means together adjustably in selected vertical positions relative to each other, for up and down adjustment of the position of the binocular hinge post relative to the position of the frame as worn by the user, in conformity with the adjustment of the interpupillary spacing of the eyepiece barrels.

Binocular and spectacle-type mounting assembly therefor

A binocular wherein each telescope embodies a porro arrangement of mirrors within a shell and includes eyepiece and objective barrels. The objective regions of the telescope shells are hingedly connected together so that the interpupillary distance between the eyepiece barrels may be adjusted as desired, and the position of the hinge connection is such that the objective barrels are offset inwardly from the eyepiece barrels in any angular or adjusted position of the telescopes and to such an extent that no part of the binocular is projected in any manner into the rim region of the field of view when the binocular is put to use.

Binocular with novel arrangement of hinge means between the telescopes

A press-type mechanism by means of which reflective, mirror-forming layers in the form of coatings or conventional mirrors are transferred in pairs from right-angle master surfaces on prism-like blocks to right-angle mirror blanks, and the latter with the mirror-forming layers thereon are then delivered to the optical system of the shell of a binocular or like viewing instrument where they automatically become cemented in place so that the mirror-forming layers assume an accurate porro relationship. The existence of the epoxy or other cementitious material which is used for the cementing operation compensates for discrepancies in manufacturing tolerances of either the replicated mirror blanks or the binocular shell.

Mechanism for forming and mounting mirrors in the shell of a binocular

A method resulting from proper use of a press-type mechanism by means of which reflective, mirror-forming layers in the form of coatings or conventional mirrors are transferred in pairs from right-angle master surfaces on prism-like blocks to right-angle mirror blanks, and the latter with the mirror-forming layers thereon are then delivered to the optical system of the shell of a binocular or like viewing instrument where they automatically become cemented in place so that the mirror-forming layers assume an accurate porro relationship. The existence of the cementitious material which is used for the cementing operation compensates for discrepancies in manufacturing tolerances of either the mirror blanks or the binocular shell.

Method of forming mirrors and mounting them in the shell of a binocular

Binocular

A high performance binocular which, by accurately seating and housing four lightweight mirrors of each telescope in a lightweight shell that almost exactly encloses its extremely short optical system, results in an optical instrument which is much smaller and approximately eight times lighter than a conventional or standard prism-type binocular having the same optical characteristics. A novel positioning of the four mirrors within each telescope shell of the binocular serves to fold the optical space within such shell so that there is minimum mirror overlap along the direction of sight, thus resulting in an instrument in which the eyepiece and objective apertures are nearly coplanar so that the eyepiece and objective barrels are collapsed toward each other with the result that they are appreciably withdrawn into the over-all confines of the telescope shells in order to produce an extremely short instrument.

Binocular having small size, lightweight, and high performance

An adapter for temporarily and releasably attaching or connecting the eyepiece barrel of one telescope of a binocular to a camera of the type which has a deeply recessed lens, to the end that the optical or lens system of such telescope may serve as a telephoto lens system for the camera, while the other telescope of the binocular is capable of serving as sighting means for the user of the camera. An optical image diverter which is associated with the adapter projects into the camera recess and increases the eye relief of the one telescope of the binocular and carries the image backward or rearwards through the camera recess so as to retrofocus such image on the camera film with or without magnification or demagnification and without vignetting.

Growing community of inventors

Chicago, IL, United States of America

William J Beecher