Patents Examined by Luke Ratcliffe
  • Patent number: 9746372
    Abstract: A receiver of a pulsed light signal comprises a photodiode adapted to generate an electric current in response to this light signal, having a parasitic capacitance Cd as its characteristic; an electrical ground; and a transimpedance amplifier connected to the input of the photodiode by a linking capacitor Cliaison. It includes an attenuation pad located between the photodiode and the transimpedance amplifier, consisting of a capacitor Cp where Cp=Cd/(??1), ? being a predetermined attenuation, where ?>1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: FRANCE BREVETS
    Inventors: Alexandre Veryeras, Daniel Passelaigue
  • Patent number: 9746589
    Abstract: A prism assembly includes a first prism, a second prism, a roof prism and an optical multilayer film. The first prism includes a first, a second and a third surface. The second prism includes a fourth, a fifth and a sixth surface. The fifth surface faces the third surface. The roof prism includes a seventh, an eighth and a ridge surface. The seventh surface faces the second surface. The optical multilayer film is disposed between the fifth surface and the third surface. A first light beam and a second light beam entering the first prism are totally reflected from the second surface to the optical multilayer film which reflects the first light beam but allows the second light beam to pass through. The second light beam enters the second prism, is totally reflected on the sixth surface, and exits from the fourth surface of the second prism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignees: SINTAI OPTICAL (SHENZHEN) CO., LTD., ASIA OPTICAL INTERNATIONAL LTD.
    Inventors: Hua-Tang Liu, Ching-Shiang Wang
  • Patent number: 9739886
    Abstract: A method for measuring and registering 3D coordinates has a 3D scanner measure a first collection of 3D coordinates of points from a first registration position. A 2D scanner collects horizontal 2D scan sets as 3D measuring device moves from first to second registration positions. A processor determines first and second translation values and a first rotation value based on collected 2D scan sets. 3D scanner measures a second collection of 3D coordinates of points from second registration position. Processor adjusts second collection of points relative to first collection of points based at least in part on first and second translation values and first rotation value. Processor identifies a correspondence among registration targets in first and second collection of 3D coordinates, and uses this correspondence to further adjust the relative position and orientation of first and second collection of 3D coordinates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Oliver Zweigle, Bernd-Dietmar Becker, Reinhard Becker
  • Patent number: 9739609
    Abstract: Techniques to determine a distance associated with a surface using time-of-flight (ToF) of pulses of light occurring at a predetermined frequency. A ToF camera may include a light emitter that emits light according to one or more phase delays relative to the configured of a first storage device of multiple storage devices of the ToF camera to receive light, convert to current, and store a charge corresponding to current. For instance, a light emitter may emit pulses at a 0° phase delay (i.e., simultaneously with the opening of the first storage device), a 90° phase delay, a 180° phase delay, and a 270° phase delay. Light captured and stored as energy in the storage devices may be then be analyzed to estimate a distance to a surface of an object in an environment. After estimating a distance between the ToF camera and a surface, the ToF camera may optimize its phase delay to reduce the error associated with a subsequent distance measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Isabella Talley Lewis
  • Patent number: 9739595
    Abstract: A multi-dimensional measuring system is disclosed wherein a laser-based tracking unit communicates with an optical target on a measurement instrument to obtain position and orientation information about the instrument. The optical target incorporates a plurality of encoders configured to provide a full 360° working range in pitch, yaw and roll. Full working range in pitch and yaw is achieved through the use of a pitch/yaw angular encoder. Full 360° working range in roll is achieved with a combination of a level sensor and a 360° angular encoder, which are fixed to a pendulum so that the level sensor is always aligned to gravity. Use of a slip-ring mechanism ensures the unlimited full working range in roll. The measurement instrument includes a scanner integrated with a probe receptacle adapted to accept a probe assembly to provide the instrument with both a scanning measurement and a probe measurement capabilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Automated Precision Inc.
    Inventor: Kam C. Lau
  • Patent number: 9733378
    Abstract: System for generating pressure waves for deep seismic surveys operating in an underwater environment below the surface, suitable for investigating subcrustal objectives for prospecting purposes in the search for hydrocarbons and/or minerals. The system comprises one or more autonomous underwater vehicles organized in swarms, independent and coordinated, each housing one or more autonomous acoustic sea sources with self-propelled striker pistons. This system is served by a system of supporting surface stations, for reprovisioning, recovery actions, checking the well-being of the single vehicles and swarms and maintenance. The system is capable of using both conventional and non-conventional self-charged acoustic sea seismic sources. The system is capable of replicating the effect of a conventional source operated from the surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: ENI S.p.A.
    Inventors: Antonio Carcaterra, Davide Calcagni, Stefano Carlo Luigi Sandroni
  • Patent number: 9723994
    Abstract: An object information acquisition apparatus, configured to receive an acoustic wave from an object and acquire characteristic information of the object, includes a receiver configured to receive the acoustic wave and convert the received acoustic wave into an electric signal, a scan control unit configured to scan the receiver at least in one direction, and a display control unit configured to produce guide information for displaying a guide on a display unit, wherein the guide is in terms of the number of times the receiver is scanned in a first direction and wherein the guide information is produced using information associated with a specified region defined by a user as a region in which characteristic information is to be acquired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tadaki Watanabe, Koichiro Wanda
  • Patent number: 9726761
    Abstract: Systems and corresponding methods for use in measuring rotation characteristics (e.g., rotation magnitude and direction) of remote targets are provided. A laser light of a known frequency is incident upon the target and reflected. A portion of the reflected laser light is directed to detector field of view, where it is measured and analyzed. The detector field of view is divided into multiple segments, each capable of independently measuring the intensity and frequency of laser light incident thereon. The rotation magnitude of the target may be correlated with the width of the total Doppler spread of reflected light incident upon the detector. The rotation direction of the target may be correlated to a difference in the Doppler spreads measured for corresponding halves of the detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Maurice J. Halmos
  • Patent number: 9729853
    Abstract: The use of one or more angled or curved and diverging light pipes or reflectors placed in a light source's, e.g. diode's, emission path at appropriate distances, angles and divergence, such that a diode's emission spot size is modified and or redirected from the diode's natural emission path to alternative planes at angle to the diode's natural emission path so that a diode emission safe spot size can be achieved on any plane at angle to the original diode natural emission path at minimum distances from the diode's point of emission.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Lumentum Operations LLC
    Inventors: Bryed Billerbeck, James Yonghong Guo, An-Chun Tien, Vincent V. Wong, Ferdinand Mendoza
  • Patent number: 9719781
    Abstract: The invention provides a measuring method for performing monitoring measurement on two or more objects. The method includes a step of scanning a predetermined range so as to include two or more objects to be measured, a step of acquiring digital images at a predetermined time interval so that there are two or more images which include the same object to be measured while scanning, a step of detecting an image of the object to be measured in the digital image and of setting up a minimal rectangle surrounding the image of the object to be measured, and a step of overlapping the minimal rectangles obtained in two or more digital images and of carrying out integrated processing to obtain positions of the objects to be measured in the image. The composite directional angle of each object to be measured is obtained based on the results of the integrated processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha TOPCON
    Inventor: Nobuyuki Nishita
  • Patent number: 9720087
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for determining a spatial orientation of an auxiliary measurement object for a laser tracker, said measurement object having reference features which provide points of light. The tracker has a base, a support which can be pivoted in a motorized manner, a pivoting unit which can be rotated about a tilting axis in a motorized manner and which comprises an image capturing unit for capturing an image of the points of light, and a beam source for emitting a laser beam. According to the method, an image is captured in the direction of the auxiliary measurement object with respective capturable points of light, and the spatial orientation of the auxiliary measurement object is derived from image positions in the image for the points of light captured in the image using an image analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG
    Inventors: Andreas Christen, Konrad Wildi, Albert Markendorf
  • Patent number: 9720076
    Abstract: A time of flight imaging system includes a light source coupled to emit light pulses to an object in response a light source modulation signal generated in response to a reference modulation signal. Each pixel cell of a time of flight pixel cell array is coupled to sense light pulses reflected from the object in response a pixel modulation signal. A programmable pixel delay line circuit is coupled to generate the pixel modulation signal with a variable pixel delay programmed in response to a pixel programming signal. A control circuit is coupled to receive pixel information from the time of flight pixel array representative of the sensed reflected light pulses. The control circuit is coupled to vary the pixel programming signal during a calibration mode to synchronize the light pulses emitted from the light source with the pulses of the pixel modulation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: OmniVision Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jian Guo, Rui Wang, Tiejun Dai
  • Patent number: 9709594
    Abstract: A laser Doppler velocimeter uses self-mixing amplification of backreflections from scatterers below the surface of a flow. A time domain signal is divided into segments that are roughly equal to a transit time of particles through a focus of a laser beam. The segments are connected to a frequency domain through the use of an FFT algorithm to produce frequency domain data segments. Signal-to-noise ratio is enhanced through signal processing techniques using the segments to produce a final enhanced signal spectrum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: Teledyne Technologies Incorporated
    Inventors: William R. Christian, Ray C. Delcher, Tong Chen, Mohsen Khoshnevisan, Phillip B. Liescheski, Michael A. Metcalf
  • Patent number: 9709677
    Abstract: A measuring device for optically measuring a distance to a target object including an emitter device for emitting an optical measuring beam to the target object, a capturing device comprising a detection surface for detecting an optical beam returned by the target object, and an evaluation device. The detection surface has a plurality of pixels, each pixel having at least one light-sensitive element and each of the plurality of pixels is connected to the evaluation device. The emitting device and the capturing device are configured in such a manner that the optical measurement beam returned by the target object simultaneously illuminates a plurality of pixels. The evaluation device is configured in such a manner that detection signals of a plurality of pixels are guided to at least one of the plurality of distance determining devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Andreas Eisele, Oliver Wolst, Bernd Schmidtke
  • Patent number: 9702968
    Abstract: In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for optimal vibration control for a wellbore logging tool is disclosed. The method may include retrieving a plurality of optimal drive signals, each of the optimal drive signals corresponding to at least one of a plurality of wellbore environmental conditions and calculated to minimize vibration of a wellbore logging tool. The method may further include obtaining an initial wellbore environmental condition. The method may include matching the initial wellbore environmental condition to an optimal drive signal stored in the plurality of optimal drive signals. The method may also include generating a drive signal for the wellbore logging tool based on the matching.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Yiming Zhao, Xingyong Song, Jason D. Dykstra
  • Patent number: 9702891
    Abstract: An analogue amplification device comprises a first stage with a common base or gate transistor that receives the modulated input current on its emitter or its source and the output signal of this first stage corresponds to the signal of the collector, a second stage formed by a follower amplifier comprising a transistor with a common collector or drain setup, a third stage that comprises a transistor with a common emitter setup, and a fourth stage that is an amplifying stage with means allowing the realization of, on the one hand, an amplification, and on the other hand, a matching of impedance. The device can be applied to a laser anemometer with optical retro-injection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignees: EPSILINE, INSTITUT NATIONAL POLYTECHNIQUE DE TOULOUSE
    Inventors: Francis Bony, Raphael Teysseyre
  • Patent number: 9696445
    Abstract: Computational systems and methods that combine global frequency-wavenumber-domain (“f-k domain”) filters with localized eigenimage based event selection to generate a resulting wavefield with reduced filter imprints on gather edges, reduced noise, and correct treatment of aliased energy are disclosed. The methods are executed by applying filters to the full set of seismic gather data in the f-k domain in order to obtain a resulting wavefield from recorded pressure and/or particle velocity data. The output of the filter is iteratively decomposed according to local dip values using eigenimage processing based on singular value decomposition (“SVD”). The same sample locations are extracted using SVD from the input in addition to generating input for a subsequent iteration with already processed data removed. Eigenimage processing methods allow for correct treatment of spatially aliased energy in f-k domain filtering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: PGS Geophysical AS
    Inventors: Tilman Kluver, Anthony James Day
  • Patent number: 9696412
    Abstract: A system and method for measuring the temporal delay an optical signal experiences along a path is provided it uses single photon sensitive detectors and multiple optical pulse rates. The multiple optical pulse rates are chosen to allow each to be isolated in post-processing even if only a single detector is employed. The detectors can be time-gated at a repetition rate synchronized but different from the optical pulse rates, including the use of a pulsed-pump up-conversion detector. The pulse rate choice allows improved performance, including an extension of the unambiguous temporal delay range. The ability to isolate the pulse rates can also be used for measuring multiple path delays simultaneously or for spectrally resolving path characteristics without requiring the use of spectral filtering. The post-processing function can be segmented to include an initial signal quality estimation step so further processing can be aborted if it is unlikely to succeed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: Nucript LLC
    Inventors: Gregory S. Kanter, Daniel R. Reilly
  • Patent number: 9696137
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatuses are provided for estimating a location on an object in a three-dimensional scene. Multiple radiation patterns are produced by spatially modulating each of multiple first radiations with a distinct combination of one or more modulating structures, each first radiation having at least one of a distinct radiation path, a distinct source, a distinct source spectrum, or a distinct source polarization with respect to the other first radiations. The location on the object is illuminated with a portion of each of two or more of the radiation patterns, the location producing multiple object radiations, each object radiation produced in response to one of the multiple radiation patterns. Multiple measured values are produced by detecting the object radiations from the location on the object due to each pattern separately using one or more detector elements. The location on the object is estimated based on the multiple measured values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: COGNEX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Benjamin Braker, Eric Moore, Daniel Feldkhun
  • Patent number: RE46480
    Abstract: The present invention is a laser ranging device that incorporates an internal tilt sensor, an internal temperature sensor, and an internal pressure sensor. The tilt sensor is used to measure the target's vertical angle relative to the horizontal reference plane. Digital signal processing circuitry controls the firing of the laser pulse, calculation of time-of-flight range, measurement of the vertical angle of the tilt sensor, measurement of ambient temperature and storage of tilt sensor and temperature sensor calibration data. The digital signal processing circuitry then provides the user temperature corrected ballistic ranging information, including corrected horizontal range. Additionally, an automatic gain control system minimizes the effects of target to target variance in reflectivity and its associated errors. It is also an object of this invention to electronically minimize errors in the measurement of a vertical angle caused by housing vibration and by temperature variance errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: OPTI-LOGIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robin H. Hines, Patrick J. Murphy, William L. Goodman, Matthew A. Johnson, Robin H. Hines