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. 02, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 28, 2001
Toshihito Shirai, Kuki, JP;
Koichi Futsuhara, Kuki, JP;
The Nippon Signal Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to an optical barrier apparatus which scans a detection area with an optical beam, and when the scanning beam is blocked by an object so that a reflection beam is not received, notifies of object presence. An optical beam from an optical beam generating circuit ( ) is reflected by a scan mirror ( ) and a detection area ( ) is scanned by a scanning beam (BM ). The scanning beam (BM ) is reflected by a reflector array ( ) of another unit and received by a light receiving element ( ), and the presence/absence of a pulse deficiency of light reception output is detected by a signal deficiency detection circuit ( ). When the scanning beam (BM ) is blocked by an object ( ) so that a part of the reflection beam from the reflector array ( ) cannot be received and a pulse deficiency occurs in the light reception output, an output (Z ) from the signal deficiency detection circuit ( ) becomes a logic value zero to thus notify of object presence.