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:
May. 31, 1994
Filed:
Sep. 25, 1992
Peter M Lister, Johnson City, NY (US);
Universal Instruments Corporation, Binghamton, NY (US);
Abstract
A prismatic viewing plate is situated across the focal axis between an object and an imaging device such as a camera capable of acquiring only a two dimensional image of the object. A characteristic of the prismatic plate is that it presents dual images of the object to the imaging device. Characteristic of the separation between the dual images is that it is dependent upon the distance of the object from the prismatic plate. These characteristics are employed to determine a range to the object by measuring the separation between the dual images, visually or by use of one of the many available machine vision techniques. A third dimension of a surface profile also can be obtained by scanning a spot of light over the object while separately viewing the spot through the prismatic plate and measuring the separation between dual images of the light spot at various points of the scan.