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. 29, 2007
Filed:
Nov. 08, 2004
Applicants:
Scott Lerner, Corvallis, OR (US);
Tim R. Koch, Corvallis, OR (US);
Ravi Prasad, Corvallis, OR (US);
Inventors:
Assignee:
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G02B 5/126 (2006.01); G02B 17/00 (2006.01); G02B 3/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
An optically retro-reflecting sphere includes an inner sphere and an outer concentric spherical shell, and can be coupled to a reflective surface. Light entering the optically retro-reflecting sphere from an incident direction is reflected by the sphere generally towards an exit direction, where the exit direction is parallel and opposite to the incident direction. The inner sphere and outer shell have different refractive indices, selected so that the reflected light is reflected with a non-uniform angular distribution about the exit direction.