Electro-optical sensors with fiber optic bundles
First Claim
1. A method of determining the dimension, location, orientation, presence, or identity of at least a portion of an object comprising the steps ofimaging at least a portion of an object onto an end of a non-coherent optical fiber bundle whereby the image incident on said end of said fiber bundle is transmitted to the other end thereof;
- transferring said image from said other end of said non-coherent optical fiber bundle onto a photodetector comprising a plurality of discrete photodetector elements;
determining, from the output of said photodetector elements, the area of the lighted or unlighted portion at the other end of said non-coherent optical fiber bundle; and
determining, from said area, said dimension, location, orientation, presence, or identity of at least said portion of said object.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Method and apparatus for determining physical characteristics of an object, such as its location, utilizing a non-coherent fiber optic bundle. In one embodiment, a non-coherent fiber optic bundle containing up to 30% randomly non-aligned fibers is utilized and an object is imaged onto one end of the bundle and the image is transferred from the other end of the bundle to a photodetector comprising a plurality of discrete photodetector elements. The area of the lighted or unlighted portion at the other end of the bundle is utilized to determine the physical characteristics of the object.
45 Citations
59 Claims
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1. A method of determining the dimension, location, orientation, presence, or identity of at least a portion of an object comprising the steps of
imaging at least a portion of an object onto an end of a non-coherent optical fiber bundle whereby the image incident on said end of said fiber bundle is transmitted to the other end thereof; -
transferring said image from said other end of said non-coherent optical fiber bundle onto a photodetector comprising a plurality of discrete photodetector elements; determining, from the output of said photodetector elements, the area of the lighted or unlighted portion at the other end of said non-coherent optical fiber bundle; and determining, from said area, said dimension, location, orientation, presence, or identity of at least said portion of said object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. Apparatus for determining the dimension, location, orientation, presence or identiy of at least a portion of an object comprising;
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means for imaging at least a portion of an object onto an end of a non-coherent optical fiber bundle whereby the image incident on said end of said fiber bundle is transmitted to the other end thereof; means for transferring said image from said other end of said non-coherent optical fiber bundle onto a photodetector comprising a plurality of discrete photodetector elements; means for determining, from the output of said photodetector elements, the area of the lighted or unlighted portion at the other end of said non-coherent optical fiber bundle; and means for determining, from said area, said dimension, location, orientation, presence or identity of at least said portion of said object. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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55. Apparatus according to claim 105 wherein said fiber bundle comprises a plurality of said ribbons laminated together.
Specification