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. 12, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 20, 1995
Fumio Ohtomo, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshikatsu Tokuda, Tokyo, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
There is provided a surveying apparatus for detecting an object reflector (102) and measuring a distance from the object reflector (102) based on a luminous flux reflected by the object reflector (102) by irradiating a luminous flux toward the object reflector which varies a direction of polarization of reflected rays relative to that of incident rays. The surveying apparatus includes a light source section (106) for radiating the luminous flux as a luminous flux having a predetermined direction of polarization; an irradiating optical system (101) for irradiating the luminous flux from the light source section (106) toward the object reflector (102); a polarizing optical element (122) for dividing a polarized/reflected luminous flux of which direction of polarization has been varied when reflected by the object reflector (102); a first light-receiving section (124, 126) for receiving the polarized/reflected luminous flux divided by the polarizing optical element (122); a second light-receiving section (120) for receiving the reflected luminous flux reflected by the object reflector (102); a detecting section (104) for detecting the object reflector based on an output signal from the first light-receiving section (124, 126); and a distance measuring section (131) for measuring the distance from the object reflector (102) based on an output signal from the second light-receiving section (120).