Apparatus for measuring relative movement between two points which represents relative movement between two items or between two parts of the same item includes a radiation source such as a light source which generates three orthogonal light beams appearing to originate at a common point, said common point constituting one of the two points, and the light source being secured to one of the items or parts of an item. A radiation sensor capable of detecting in three two-dimensional sensing planes the position of each of the three orthogonal radiation beams, such as three light sensing arrays arranged in three orthogonal planes, each of the three orthogonal sensing planes intersecting at an origin point which constitutes the other of the two points is secured to the other item or part of an item. A calculation unit such as a microprocessor is provided for calculating the relative position of the two points at any particular time from the determined positions of the three radiation beams striking the sensing means at that time and may also be programmed to relate the relative position of the two points and changes in such relative position to the relative position and changes of the two items or parts of an item to which the radiation source and sensor are secured. The movement between the two points, the two items, or parts of the same time is determined by calculating the difference in positions between two measured relative positions.
A method and apparatus for measuring the linear movement between first and second substantially planar surfaces and is useful, for example, in an automatic focusing system of a photographic enlarging or printing machine. The linear movement between a first plane, e.g., a lens plane and a second plane, e.g., a film or print plane, at a single point, e.g., the lens optical center, is determined by measuring the linear movement of two diametrically opposed points proximate to the lens plane equidistant from the lens optical center. The two measured distances are then averaged to yield a distance measurement at the lens optical center corrected for any deflection of the lens plane.
A position measuring/plotting apparatus and a position indicator are used in plotting a plan view representing a situation, for example, the site of a traffic accident. The position measuring/plotting apparatus generally includes a position detector to detect spatial coordinates of targets, a processor to detect plane coordinates of the targets based on the spatial coordinates, and a plan view plotter to plot a plan view based on the data regarding those plane coordinates. The position indicator comprises a plurality of targets fixedly mounted on a supporting rod having an end serving to indicate a position of a scene component. Each target includes a reflector adapted to reflect a light beam projected thereon and light emitters used to project light beams by which the target is detected by the position detector. The position detector comprises a light emitter to project a light beam on the target and a light receiver to detect the light beam reflected on the target to thereby detect spatial coordinates of the target. The spatial coordinates of the target detected by the position detector are processed by the processor to obtain plane coordinates corresponding to the position indicated by the end of the supporting rod. A plan view is then plotted by the plan view plotter based on the plane coordinates. Various kinds of information regarding the target, the supporting rod and the other components are superimposed on the light beams for target detection and the light receiver of the position detector used exclusively to detect these light beams identifies those various kinds of information.
An apparatus for sensing three-dimensional relative movement includes a movable motion sensor including a first and a second two-dimensional array of photo detectors. At least one lens directs far-field images onto the first and the second arrays of photo detectors. The sensor is configured to generate digital representations of the far-field images and to generate three-dimensional relative movement data based on the digital representations of the far-field images. The movement data is indicative of motion of the sensor in three dimensions.
The invention relates to a three-dimensional measurement system comprising a hardware part and a software part, in which the hardware part includes a mobile two-axis assembly (12) associated with a remote measurement device (13) installed on a fixed part (14), each axis being equipped with an angular encoder (22) restoring the direction of a sighting at any time, and in which the software part includes a control part at the input and an acquisition part at the output.
