The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 1989
Filed:
Feb. 16, 1988
A/S Tomra Systems, Asker, NO;
Abstract
A device for generating, detecting, and characterizing a raster image of the contour of an object, wherein a narrow concentrated light beam (1) is emitted towards a light beam deflector means (3) causing said light beam (1) to sweep repeatedly across a plane (19) through which the object is guilded, and where the light beams not screened by said object are received, and are opto-electrically transformed into electrical signals, e.g. pulse trains which are characteristic of the incremental portions of a raster image of said object, said signals being processed to yield a characteristic expression of the contour of said object. A retro-reflector (5;32) is placed in such a manner that light beams (10) not screened by said object are reflected back across said plane (19) at a second angle of scattering which is equal to or larger than said first angle of scattering, and a detector (11) receives the reflected light beams (10) and transforms them into said signals, preferably for forming a successive pulse train. When a continuous light beam is used the retro-reflector is provided with a plurality of narrow non-reflecting and mutually stripes (6) across the retro-reflector (5). When a pulsed light beam is used a nontreated retro-reflector (32) is used. The plane across which the light beam (1) sweeps may be caused to oscillate in which case a two-dimensional raster image of the contour of the object is formed.