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:
Dec. 18, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1999
Kazunari Shiraishi, Fukuoka, JP;
Hitoshi Wakisako, Fukuoka, JP;
Yoshinaga Maruyama, Fukuoka, JP;
Kyoji Yano, Fukuoka, JP;
Moriyuki Nakashima, Fukuoka, JP;
Other;
Abstract
The present invention is a distance measuring device having a low power laser for use outdoors. The distance measuring device of the invention includes a laser emitting means that emits a pulsed laser beam to an object to be measured and an image reader that takes in irradiations images and stop period images of the object synchronously with an irradiation and stop period of the laser beam. A processing device then subtracts the stop image pixel values from the emission image pixel values to produce differential images. A minimum value image of the differential images is processed and binarized using a binary threshold to produce binary data from which a position where the laser beam is received is found. A calculation apparatus then determines a distance between the laser beam receiving position and the object based on the position where the laser beam is received.