Abstract: To develop and provide an illuminating method for a paint defect detecting machine in which a camera section and an illumination section are provided on an integral base board to optimize the illuminating method for multiple curved surface areas of a vehicle body, thereby to minimize undetectable areas and increase areas detectable by the apparatus, whereby areas of inspection by the human eye are reduced to implement labor saving.

Abstract: A coating defect detecting and marking system is provided for automatic detection and marking of a coating defect on the body surface of a car. The system detects a spot to mend such as a flaw or coating defect on the outer surface of a coated car body and marks the position of the spot to mend. There are provided along a production line along which the car body is conveyed an imaging block to detect a spot to mend such as a flaw or coating defect on the outer surface of the coated car body, and a piezo pump to provide a jet of marking solution to a corresponding position on the car body surface to the spot to mend detected by the imaging block.

Abstract: In the method for measuring the illuminance of a vehicle lamp according to the present invention, an image of the light emitted from a headlamp and projected onto a screen is picked up for every pixel, by an imaging device, to detect a gradient of each pixel; an illuminance of the light incident upon illuminance sensors disposed in predetermined positions correspondingly to the screen is detected by each of the illuminance sensors; a function or correlation diagram showing the relationship between the illuminances and gradients is generated based on the gradients corresponding to as many illuminances thus obtained as the illuminance sensors; and the function or correlation diagram is used to detect the illuminance at a position on the screen, the position corresponding to the desired pixel.

Abstract: In a method of detecting optical axis of a headlamp, according to the present invention, an image of the light projected onto the screen is segmented grid by grid on the reference grid plane, a test window set in the reference grid plane is moved and the illuminance of the light incident upon a CCD corresponding to each grid in a test window B set in the reference grid plane is integrated each time the test window B is moved, and the center of the test window C when the integrated illuminance reaches a maximum value is detected as the optical axis position. According to the present invention, it is possible to positively detect an headlamp optical axis even if a plurality of hot zones exists.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a wheel alignment measuring apparatus which measures the toe-in length or angle and camber angle of each tire (17) of a car.The wheel alignment measuring apparatus can be used to measure the distances to various points on the surface of the tire (17) by means of the light of a predetermined wavelength emitted from the light-emitting means (4) and to determine the toe-in angle or length and camber angle of the tire (17) based on the measured distances. In other words, such measurement can be done without any contact with the tire (17) under inspection, thus it is possible to prevent any trouble which would occur when such measurement is done in contact with the tire, such as error caused by the oscillation or the like of the tire (17).

Abstract: In the apparatus for measuring optical-axis deflection angle of a headlight, according to the present invention, the optical-axis detecting means (3) detects the optical axis (l") of the light projected at the first location (E.sub.1) from the headlight (7), and the screen box moving mechanism (2) moves until the position of the optical axis (l") coincides with the center of the screen (9). Then, the screen box is stopped there. Next, the screen moving mechanism (10) is put into operation to move the screen (9) from the first location (E.sub.1) to the second location (E.sub.2), the optical-axis detecting means (3) detects the optical axis (l") from the light projected onto the screen (9), and the controlling means (6) makes a predetermined calculation from the information on the optical-axis position, thereby calculating a deflection angle (.alpha..sub.1, .alpha..sub.2) of the optical axis.