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. 16, 1994
Filed:
Aug. 17, 1992
Robert Yates, Newport Beach, CA (US);
RAM Optical Instrumentation, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
There is disclosed an optical unit which is primarily intended to provide visual references for measuring machines such as coordinate measuring machines, milling machines, EDM machines, tape and computer controlled drilling machines, etc. The optical unit has a motor driven zoom lens within a lens housing, and an optical coupling for a video camera. The zoom lens assembly of this invention is a modification of that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,878 to include a stepper drive motor and a rotational position encoder which provides the necessary lens information to determine the power of magnification of the lens at any instant position. The preferred encoder includes a disc mounted on the barrel of the zoom lens which has a plurality of slots about its periphery at equal angular increments, and a photo-optical sensor which counts light pulses and generates a pulsed electrical signal as the disc rotates beside the sensor.