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:
Oct. 28, 2008
Filed:
Feb. 23, 2006
George E. Rollins, Chelmsford, MA (US);
James E. Dogul, Hudson, NH (US);
Richard Galera, Nashua, NH (US);
Derek W. Jones, Kirkcudbright, GB;
George Schuster, Royal Oak, MI (US);
Suresh Nair, Amherst, NH (US);
Ray Delcher, Oxnard, CA (US);
George E. Rollins, Chelmsford, MA (US);
James E. Dogul, Hudson, NH (US);
Richard Galera, Nashua, NH (US);
Derek W. Jones, Kirkcudbright, GB;
George Schuster, Royal Oak, MI (US);
Suresh Nair, Amherst, NH (US);
Ray Delcher, Oxnard, CA (US);
Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc., Mayfield Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate increasing a coverage area for an emitter-receiver pair in a light curtain by generating multiple light beams from a single emitter and aggregating the light beams at a corresponding receiver. A plurality of light beams can be generated by reflection off of a MEMS mirror associated with the emitter, which can then be reflected from receiver-side mirrors along generally parallel paths, to corresponding emitter-side mirrors, which in turn reflect the light beams back to a MEMS mirror associated with the receiver. The receiver-side MEMS mirror can aggregate the reflected light beams for detection thereof by the receiver. According to a related aspect, transmissive LCD arrays can be employed at both the emitter and receiver to generate and recombine a plurality of light beams, respectively.