Abstract: A highway traffic warning reflector comprises a conventional collapsible shopping bag having highly reflective outer surfaces and support means for maintaining the bag upright when opened and placed with its bottom on the ground adjacent a roadway. The support means includes a rigid rod and weight formed with an opening to receive one end of the rod, and a loop formed adjacent a corner of the bag near its upper open end. To set up the reflector, the bag is opened from its collapsed state, the weight placed in a corner at the bottom of the bag and the rod inserted through the loop and into the opening in the weight. In lieu of a separate rod, stiffening means may be incorporated in the bag structure. One or more support means may be used to maintain the reflective bag upright adjacent a roadway in fall view of oncoming vehicles against wind and turbulence caused by passing vehicles.

Abstract: A surface pattern (1) has N visually recognizable patterns which are composed of optically diffractive, microscopically fine relief structures, plane mirror faces or absorbing or scattering structures. The N patterns share at least one independent common surface element (11). The surface element (11) is subdivided into surface parts and has an arrangement of the surface parts which is independent of the N patterns, which has a predetermined structure, and which is not recognizable to the naked eye. A single microscopically fine diffraction structure or a structure which has an absorbing or scattering property or is a plane mirror is applied to each surface part. The relief structures, diffraction structures and other structures are embedded in a plastic laminate (20) and can have their optical performance enhanced by a reflection layer (21). The surface pattern (1) is applied as a security element to a document (2) and allows the document (2) to be identified by machine in a reading machine.

Abstract: When finely aligning an optical fiber, attached in groove of a carrier, with a surface area of an optical element such as a laser, the plate-shaped carrier is plastically deformed by having suitable tools displace or act on the carrier at the end of the fiber, within a deformation region. For facilitating the plastic deformation, slots are made around the deformation region, so that a weakened area is obtained quite at the end surface of the fiber. The fine alignment can be made either for correcting the position of erroneously mounted optical building elements or for a fine alignment of building elements, which have been mounted without necessarily trying to achieve a very high accuracy. The alignment procedure can be executed while simultaneously measuring the efficiency of the interface, by activating the laser to emit light into the optical fiber. This light can be detected by a light detector, so that the deformation process can be made in order to obtain maximum output power at the end of the fiber.

Abstract: A micro relief element which comprises a) a first layer of a first substrate, the first layer having a receptive surface capable of retaining a relief forming polymer; b) an overlay of a desired thickness of the relief forming polymer over the receptive surface; and c) at least one relief feature formed from the relief forming polymer and which protrudes above the overlay; structures and elements comprising such micro relief element; micro-optical, micro-fluidic, micro-electrical and micro-chemical applications thereof; and a method and apparatus for the preparation thereof.

Abstract: A mechanical grating device for improving the diffraction efficiency. The mechanical grating device is built on a base having a surface. Above the base a spacer layer, having an upper surface, is provided, and a longitudinal channel is formed in said spacer layer, said channel having a first and second opposing side wall and a bottom. A plurality of spaced apart deformable ribbon elements are disposed parallel to each other. The deformable elements are organized in groups of N elements wherein N is greater than 2. When the device is actuated each of said groups forms a pattern of discrete levels wherein the pattern has n levels wherein n is greater than 2.

Abstract: An all-reflective zoom optical system is disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of curved relay mirrors successively reflecting electromagnetic radiation received by the system to generate a real image with electromagnetic radiation on a focal surface that is fixed across the zoom range. Further, the entrance aperture also is constant for any zoom position. The curved relay mirrors are movable in relationship to each other in mutually parallel tracks to effect the magnification. The system further includes a primary and secondary mirror for collecting and reflecting incoming electromagnetic radiation to the curved relay mirrors.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of easily and quantitatively determining the diffraction efficiency of a relief type diffraction optical element, and provides a method of designing an optical system comprising a diffractive optical element using diffraction efficiency as at least one estimation index. The diffractive optical element is a transmission blaze grating constructed of a relief having a sawtooth shape in section. The transmission blaze grating having a side wall substantially vertical to a grating surface. The estimation index is given by a predetermined mathematical expression including at least a phase difference due to a relief discontinuity and shadow effects thereof. The mathematical expression includes as the shadow effects of said discontinuity at least a light attenuation effect dependent on an angle-of-incidence and a light attenuation effect independent on the angle-of incidence in a separate manner.

Abstract: A reflector is used with an electric distance meter, for measuring a distance of two positions. The reflector includes a reflecting member which reflects an incident light in parallel to the direction of incidence, and a selective transmission member provided to a light-incident surface of the reflecting member. The selective transmission member allows infrared ray to pass, while the selective transmission member prevents visible light from passing.

Abstract: An apodised refractive index grating is recorded in a photosensitive optical fiber by forming first and second component interference patterns with different pitches, that are recorded in the grating such as to result in apodisation. The component patterns are spatially in phase in a central region and move progressively out of phase towards the ends of the patterns. The patterns may be recorded sequentially or concurrently. The fiber may be stretched once or cylically.

Abstract: A fully automated telescope system is able to be fully operable in both Alt-Az and polar configurations. In either configuration, the telescope aligns itself to be celestial coordinate system following a simplified initialization procedure during which the telescope tube is first pointed north and then pointed towards a user's horizon. A command processor, under application software program control orients the telescope system with respect to the celestial coordinate system given the initial directional inputs. The initial telescope orientation may be further refined by initially inputting a geographical location indicia, or by shooting one or two additional celestial objects. Once the telescope's orientation with respect to the celestial coordinate system is established, the telescope system will automatically move to and track any desired celestial object without further alignment invention by a user.

Abstract: A viewing optical instrument has a roof prism which is provided with a pair of reflection surfaces intersecting at a nominal face angle of 90°, wherein the pupil is split by an edge line of the reflection surfaces of the roof prism. The reflection surfaces are provided with a multiple-layer coating which does not absorb visible light. A change in the phase difference produced between light incident on one of reflection surfaces located on opposite sides of an edge line of the roof prism and emitted from the other reflection surface, and light incident on the right reflection surface and emitted from the left reflection surface is restricted to reduce wavefront aberrations to thereby improve the quality of an image to be viewed. A roof prism used in the optical instrument is also disclosed.

Abstract: A cover for tripod base fender mounted truck mirrors of flexible material having a closed end and an open end. The closed end and the open end are about the size of the tripod base. The open end and closed end are spaced apart by generally straight sides. The sides are longer than the ends when the cover is collapsed flat. The sides are generally parallel. The cover adjacent the open end is selectively expandable to encompass tripod bases of several different sizes.

Abstract: A tunable optical fiber buildout for coupling a first optical fiber cable to a second optical fiber cable is disclosed. The buildout is comprised of a buildout base formed about a longitudinal axis and a buildout cap constructed and arranged to be received within the base. The base is constructed and arranged to be received within the cap in one of a plurality of rotational positions about the longitudinal axis of the base so that the cap can be used to selectively optimize an optical signal passed through at least one of the first and the second optical fiber cables, respectively, as the cap is positioned in one of the plurality of rotational positions about the axis of the base.

Abstract: The present invention is an apparatus and method for displaying large, continuous, autostereoscopic images. The present invention overcomes the size limitation of typical aulostereoscopic images by recording a continuous, autostereoscopic image onto separate sheets or segments of recording material, mounting the recorded segments to separate tiles, and then displaying the tiles to display a continuous, autostereoscopic image. Although the autostereoscopic image display of the present invention is comprised of separate segments, the present invention offers viewers of the display a unitary visual impression of a large, autostereoscopic image without apparent discontinuities. In one broad aspect, the present invention provides a system for easily displaying segments of recording material to form a large, continuous, autostereoscopic image. The display can be disassembled into components that are light, compact, easily transportable, and easily storable.

Abstract: A substrate is arranged for presenting a three-dimensional optical image to a viewer. The substrate is formed with a multiplicity of pairs of spaced optical elements, with each pair of spaced optical elements being arranged for directing light incident thereon to a respective eye of the viewer, when the viewer is positioned at a predetermined angle of view or within a limited range of angles of view, for giving the viewer a perception of a point image located at a predetermined distance from a plane of the substrate at an intersection of lines followed by light rays from a respective optical element of a pair of spaced optical elements. The multiplicity of pairs of optical elements are arranged at different x and y orientations on the substrate, so that corresponding multiplicity of adjacent point images, so provided, together form the three-dimensional optical image for the viewer.

Abstract: A creative art kit is provided for producing and viewing stereoscopic images. The kit includes a pigmented medium that is adapted to be applied to a surface and which includes a luminescent material as a component thereof. The kit also includes a viewer through which a user may observe the images, and which has an optical element that is operative to disperse wavelengths of light passing therethrough at different dispersion angles depending on the spectral position of each wavelength. The kit may further be provided with various pigmented media, applicators, stencils, and instructions for producing and viewing the images. In addition, the present invention is directed to a method for producing and viewing stereoscopic images, which comprises the steps of applying a pigmented medium that includes a luminescent material to a surface in a selected design and viewing the surface and the design through a viewer.

Abstract: A diffractive-refractive achromatic lens includes a refractive lens system exhibiting longitudinal chromatic aberration that is substantially proportional to wavelength such that the back focus of the refractive lens system decreases as the wavelength becomes shorter and a diffractive grating for correcting the longitudinal chromatic aberration of the refractive lens system. The refractive lens having such a chromatic aberration includes a positive lens having relatively small dispersion and a negative lens having relatively large dispersion. Further, the following condition (1) should be satisfied: 0.005<f/fD<0.2 where f is a focal length of the entire lens system, and fD is a focal length of the positive diffractive grating.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of easily and quantitatively determining the diffraction efficiency of a relief type diffraction optical element, and provides a method of designing an optical system comprising a diffractive optical element using diffraction efficiency as at least one estimation index. The diffractive optical element is a transmission blaze grating constructed of a relief having a sawtooth shape in section. The transmission blaze grating having a side wall substantially vertical to a grating surface. The estimation index is given by a predetermined mathematical expression including at least a phase difference due to a relief discontinuity and shadow effects thereof. The mathematical expression includes as the shadow effects of said discontinuity at least a light attenuation effect dependent on an angle-of-incidence and a light attenuation effect independent on the angle-of-incidence in a separate manner.

Abstract: The invention relates to a flag-pole light provided by means of a luminous knob comprising a light source which is provided within a cover and emits light rays that are reflected from reflecting surfaces through a translucent lower portion of the cover. The luminous knob of the invention can be mounted on existing flag-poles in place of a conventional knob or on new poles during their manufacture.

Abstract: A material for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) multilayers that will reflect at about 11.3 nm, have a high reflectance, low stress, and high thermal and radiation stability. The material consists of alternating layers of Mo2C and Be deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on a substrate, such as silicon. In one example a Mo2C/Be multilayer gave 65.2% reflectance at 11.25 nm measured at 5 degrees off normal incidence angle, and consisted of 70 bilayers with a deposition period of 5.78 nm, and was deposited at 0.83 mTorr argon (Ar) sputtering pressure, with the first and last layers being Be. The stress of the multilayer is tensile and only +88 MPa, compared to +330 MPa of a Mo/Be multilayers of the same thickness. The Mo2C/Be multilayer was capped with carbon which produced an increase in reflectivity of about 7% over a similar multilayer with no carbon capping material, thus raising the reflectivity from 58.3% to over 65%.