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. 13, 1991
Filed:
Mar. 26, 1990
Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus for detecting the distance between one's car and the car ahead, together with the angle between the axes of the two cars. The apparatus has a pair of driving optical systems disposed at a predetermined distance from each other, each driving optical system comprising an optical system having a light projector which projects pulse light having a specific code toward the car which is ahead of the one's car and a light receiver which receives the reflected pulse light from the car ahead, the light projector and receiver being disposed in so close proximity to each other that the respective optical axes can be considered to be on substantially the same axis, and a driving system for adjusting the angle of projection of the light projector on the basis of a signal from the light receiver. The apparatus further has a central processing unit which measures the angle of projection of the pulse light from the light projector when the light receiver of each of the driving optical systems detects the reflected pulse light, thereby detecting the distance between the one's car and the car ahead, together with the angle between the axes of the two cars.