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:
Feb. 21, 2012
Filed:
Nov. 02, 2007
Tadashi Kawata, Tokyo, JP;
Michinori Ichikawa, Tokyo, JP;
Fumio Kubo, Tokyo, JP;
Yutaka Ishiyama, Tokyo, JP;
Tadashi Kawata, Tokyo, JP;
Michinori Ichikawa, Tokyo, JP;
Fumio Kubo, Tokyo, JP;
Yutaka Ishiyama, Tokyo, JP;
Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The disclosed subject matter relates to a method and apparatus for position judgment, which can include a plurality of light sources and a photo-detector. The plurality of light sources can be configured to emit a plurality of pulsed lights towards an object from different directions, and a photo-detector can be configured to serially detect the light reflected from the object. A determination of whether the object is moving further away or coming closer to the apparatus can be judged by calculating at least one of a position, an area and a brightness of the object from the reflected light and comparing the data with the previous data for the same value(s). Thus, because the method of the disclosed subject matter does not require a measurement of time as in the conventional methods, the method can result in providing a similar apparatus with a simple configuration and at a low cost, and can be used as a sensor for detecting an obstacle and the like in a vehicle, alarm system, etc.