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:
Nov. 05, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 22, 2011
Howard N. Lavalley, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Thomas H. Chyba, Tijeras, NM (US);
Howard N. LaValley, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Thomas H. Chyba, Tijeras, NM (US);
Exelis, Inc., McLean, VA (US);
Abstract
According to a present invention embodiment, safety is enhanced for a non-eye-safe limited-range laser sensing system. The laser sensing system typically has an operating range limited to a well-defined spatial interval. A range measurement is utilized to control emissions of the non-eye-safe laser. In particular, when the range to a target is outside the designed spatial interval defining the operating range of the laser sensing system, transmission of the non-eye-safe laser beam is disabled or rendered non-hazardous. In other words, the transmission of the non-eye-safe laser beam is disabled in response to no detection of a hard target within the operating range of the laser sensing system, or when an object is detected between the laser sensing system and the spatial interval that defines the operating range. The target distance may be tracked to change the location (and possibly, width) of the adaptive spatial interval defining the operating range.