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:
Jun. 28, 2011
Filed:
Jan. 22, 2009
Bernd Donath, Jena, DE;
Thomas Marold, Jena, DE;
Bernd Donath, Jena, DE;
Thomas Marold, Jena, DE;
Trimble Jena GmbH, , DE;
Abstract
An electronic leveling apparatus for optically measuring a height difference relative to a leveling staff comprises a telescope, a camera fixed to the telescope, a first actuator for rotating both said telescope and said camera in a horizontal plane about a fixed vertical axis of the apparatus, and a controller. The camera has a depth of focus that is at least twice a depth of focus of the telescope. The controller uses a first output signal from said telescope to output a leveling signal representing a detected height difference. The controller uses a second output signal from said camera to identify a representation of a leveling staff and to control the first actuator based on the identified representation of the leveling staff. Furthermore a method for optically measuring a height difference of an electronic leveling apparatus relative to a leveling staff is provided.