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:
Jan. 14, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1999
Guy D. Godin, Ottawa, CA;
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, CA;
Abstract
A method of determining the color and profile of a target surface involves scanning the target surface with an incident light beam containing a plurality of component wavelengths, forming a beam of light reflected from the target surface and synchronized with the incident beam; and splitting the reflected beam into separate sub-beams of different wavelengths. The sub-beams are directed onto a sensor array to permit their relative positions to be determined as the incident beam moves over the target surface. A portion of the reflected beam is directed onto a color sensitive photodetector to obtain data representative of the approximate color composition of the reflected beam. The color and profile of the target surface is determined from the relative positions of the sub-beams on said sensor array using the data representative of the approximate wavelength composition to resolve ambiguities in the results. The split portion of the reflected beam can also be sampled at a higher rate than the sensor array to obtain information about the appearance of the surface at a higher resolution than possible with the sensor array alone.