Patents by Inventor Jurg Hinderling

Jurg Hinderling has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10718866
    Abstract: A distance measuring method and an electronic laser distance measuring module, in particular for use in a distance measuring apparatus, especially configured as a laser tracker, tachymeter, laser scanner, or profiler, for fast signal detection with an analog-to-digital converter, wherein conversion errors that arise in the context of a signal digitization, in particular timing, gain and offset errors of the ADC, are compensated for by means of variation of the sampling instants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Rainer Wohlgenannt, Simon Bestler, Jürg Hinderling
  • Publication number: 20200166340
    Abstract: A stand-alone module for localizing a surveying device installed with a stand above a ground mark. The module has at least one housing attached between the stand and the surveying device, a measuring camera unit, which is arranged and designed in such a way that when the module is mounted on a stand the ground mark can be detected in the field of view of the measuring camera unit, a power supply, an inclination sensor and a communication unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2019
    Publication date: May 28, 2020
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventor: Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20200166643
    Abstract: An electro-optical distance meter and a distance measuring method, wherein a distance to a target is measured based on runtime by means of radiation pulses, which are emitted at a pulse rate. Received radiation pulses are digitized by means of sampling, wherein the sampling rate is set in dependence on the pulse rate, wherein a digitized signal is generated on the basis of sampling over the reception signals of a plurality of received radiation pulses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Publication date: May 28, 2020
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Reto STUTZ, Jürg HINDERLING, Andreas WALSER
  • Publication number: 20200158826
    Abstract: A measuring appliance for performing distance measurements to an object, with an optical transmitter channel, an optical reception channel, a reference light path and an evaluation device, wherein the optical transmitter channel comprises a transmitter unit and an optical outlet element and the optical reception channel comprises an optical inlet element and a reception unit. The measuring appliance facilitates distance measurements over a measurement light path to the object and back again and over a reference light path. An attenuation device renders a desired signal attenuation attainable in the reference light path. The reference light path is laid out in such a way that it receives laser measurement radiation prior to the passage through the optical outlet element, guides said laser radiation without contact with the surroundings to the attenuation device and forwards an attenuated portion to the reception unit through the optical inlet element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2019
    Publication date: May 21, 2020
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Jürg HINDERLING, Simon BESTLER, Reto STUTZ, Rainer WOHLGENANNT
  • Patent number: 10634771
    Abstract: A laser scanner device adapted to be mounted to a vehicle, the device comprising a LIDAR module, the LIDAR module comprising at least one laser source, characterized by a horizontal field of view of at least 60°, an instantaneous vertical field of view of at least ±2°, a scan resolution of at least one point per 0.8° in horizontal and vertical direction, and a frame rate of at least 10 Hz for scanning at least the entire horizontal and instantaneous vertical field of view with said scan resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG
    Inventors: Julien Singer, Lukas Heinzle, Jochen Scheja, Simon Mark, Jürg Hinderling, Burkhard Böckem
  • Publication number: 20200110159
    Abstract: A measuring apparatus for the three-dimensional geometric acquisition of surroundings by means of a rotating transceiver platform and a multiplicity of transmission channels for emitting pulsed distance measurement beams, wherein in each case a different elevation with respect to a reference plane orthogonal to the rotation axis is scannable with each of the transmission channels. Furthermore, the measuring apparatus comprises a receiving unit having a sensor arrangement of semiconductor photomultiplier sensors, wherein the number of sensors is less than the number of transmission channels, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are configured such that at least two of the transmission channels are assigned to a common sensor, which is configured for generating distance measurement data with respect to the at least two transmission channels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2019
    Publication date: April 9, 2020
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Rainer WOHLGENANNT, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20190293761
    Abstract: An optoelectronic measuring device having scanning functionality having a pulsed radiation source for generating a measuring beam from light pulses at a light pulse emission rate, an optoelectronic detector for detecting light pulses reflected from a target object, a control and analysis unit designed for measuring a distance value from a respective scanning point of the target object according to the time-of-flight principle, based on a number n>=1 of light pulses, wherein the control and analysis unit is designed to automatically set the number (n) depending on a target-object-related measured value determined by the measuring device in real time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2019
    Publication date: September 26, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Jürg HINDERLING, Rainer WOHLGENANNT
  • Patent number: 10401144
    Abstract: A coordinate measuring machine (1) for determining at least one spatial coordinate of a measurement point of an object (15) to be measured, comprising a base (5) and a drive mechanism, adapted to drive a probe head (13) in a manner such that the probe head (13) is capable to move relative to the base (5) for approaching a measurement point, characterized by a first range camera (3, 33) having a range image sensor with a sensor array, wherein the range camera (3, 33) is adapted to be directed to the object (15) for providing a range image (23) of the object (15), and wherein range pixels of the range image are used for creating a point cloud with 3D-positions of target points of the object (15), and a controller, adapted to control the drive mechanism on the basis of 3D-positions of the target points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Bo Pettersson, Knut Siercks, Eugen Voit, Jürg Hinderling, Benedikt Zebhauser, Klaus Schneider, Pascal Jordil
  • Patent number: 10345434
    Abstract: The invention relates to a distance measurement apparatus for measuring the time of flight of electromagnetic signals, having at least: a transmitter for transmitting coded transmission signals according to a pattern specified by a coder, a receiver for detecting the signals reflected by at least one object as receive signals, a counter unit having a time counter for writing time counter values, which are generated in each case with the transmission of the transmission signals and the receipt of the receive signals, into at least one register, and a control and evaluation unit for calculating the time of flight on the basis of decoding the receive signals and reading the register of the counter unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Jürg Hinderling, Reto Stutz, Julien Singer, Rainer Wohlgenannt, Simon Bestler
  • Publication number: 20190196017
    Abstract: An optical measuring device having a base for placing the measuring device and a targeting unit that is rotatable with respect to the base and defines a target axis for targeting a target object that is to be measured. The targeting unit has a first beam path for emitting optical measurement radiation in the direction of the target object that is to be measured. The targeting unit furthermore has a diffractive optical element (DOE), which is arranged or arrangeable in the beam path such that the optical measurement radiation is homogenized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 26, 2018
    Publication date: June 27, 2019
    Applicant: LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG
    Inventors: Reto STUTZ, Josef LAIS, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20190162825
    Abstract: An optical distance meter configured to carry out a distance measurement in a first measuring mode, in which the distance meter is set for distance measurement on a retroreflective target, and a second measuring mode, in which the distance meter is set for distance measurement on a diffusely scattering target. In this case, a first aperture of the receiving channel is set in the first measuring mode, which is smaller than an aperture set in the second measuring mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2018
    Publication date: May 30, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Simon BESTLER, Rainer WOHLGENANNT, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20190094346
    Abstract: A laser scanner includes multiple measuring beams for optical surveying of an environment. The laser scanner is configured to provide scanning with at least two different multi-beam scan patterns, in which each multi-beam scan pattern is individually activatable by a computing unit of the laser scanner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Charles Leopold Elisabeth DUMOULIN, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20190094345
    Abstract: A laser scanner device can be adapted to be mounted to a vehicle, the device comprising a LiDAR module working based on a laser measuring beam and time-of-flight-measurement-principle. The LiDAR module is configured to provide a horizontal field of view of at least 60°, an instantaneous vertical field of view of at least ±2°, a scan resolution of at least one point per 0.8° in horizontal and vertical direction, and a frame rate of at least 10 Hz for scanning at least the entire horizontal and instantaneous vertical field of view with said scan resolution, wherein the LiDAR module comprises a multibeam transmitter configured for generating a plurality of measuring beams.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Applicants: LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG, HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Julien SINGER, Lukas HEINZLE, Jochen SCHEJA, Simon MARK, Jürg HINDERLING, Burkhard BÖCKEM
  • Publication number: 20190064328
    Abstract: Surveying device comprising a base defining a base axis (A), a support structure arranged to be rotatable around the base axis (A) and defining a rotation axis (B), a light emitting unit for emitting measuring signal and a light receiving unit comprising a detector for detecting reflected measuring signal. A rotation unit is mounted on the support structure for providing emission and reception of measuring light in defined directions, wherein the rotation unit comprises a rotation body which is mounted rotatable around the rotation axis (B) and the rotation body comprises a scanning mirror which is arranged tilted relative to the rotation axis (B). The device comprises at least one projector fixedly arranged with the support structure, defining a particular optical axis and configured to direct a light pattern at a scene, wherein position and shape of the pattern are controllable by the controlling and processing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2018
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Thomas AMMER, Thomas JENSEN, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20190064323
    Abstract: A measuring device can have a scanning functionality for optical surveying of an environment, wherein the measuring device has a sensor comprising an assembly of microcells as a receiving surface and direction-dependent active sections of the receiver are defined depending on the transmission direction of the transmitted radiation, in order to adapt the active receiver surface to a varying imaging position of the received radiation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Tim MAYER, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Publication number: 20190063915
    Abstract: A distance meter for the high-accuracy single-point distance measurement to a target point by means of an oriented emitted beam, wherein the receiver has an optoelectronic sensor based on an arrangement of microcells for acquiring the received beam. The receiver and a computer unit are configured in this case for deriving a set of runtimes with respect to different cross-sectional components of the received beam acquired using subregions of the receiver, and therefore, for example, an evaluation is enabled as to whether the received beam has parts of the emitted beam reflected on a single target or a multiple target in its lateral extension.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Jürg HINDERLING, Simon BESTLER, Thomas PIOK, Andreas WALSER, Rainer WOHLGENANNT
  • Publication number: 20190063914
    Abstract: A total station or a theodolite includes scanning functionality for optical surveying of an environment, in which the total station or the theodolite is configured such that direction-dependent active acquisition regions of the receiver are defined depending on the transmission direction of the transmitted radiation to adapt the receiver surface mechanically and/or electronically to a varying imaging position of the received radiation on the overall detector surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Applicant: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Tim MAYER, Jürg HINDERLING
  • Patent number: 10215854
    Abstract: The invention relates to a surveying apparatus, in particular tachymeter, laser scanner, profiler or laser tracker, comprising an electronic laser distance measuring module, which comprises an optical transmission channel and an optical reception channel for laser measurement radiation, wherein a variable optical attenuation unit for the laser measurement radiation is provided in the optical transmission channel and/or optical reception channel. According to the invention, light impinging on the attenuation unit is attenuated by means of liquid crystals. The attenuation unit comprises at least one polarizer, in particular comprising a polarization sheet, a liquid crystal shutter, in particular comprising nematic liquid crystals, having a variable transmission, a first analyzer, in particular comprising a polarization sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Jürg Hinderling, Paul Benz, Josef Lais
  • Patent number: 10185032
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention relate to a time measurement circuit for an incoming signal. In some embodiments, the time measurement circuit has a comparator stage, for generating a comparator output signal depending on a fulfillment of a criterion by the incoming signal, wherein exceeding or falling below a threshold value is defined as the criterion. Furthermore, a digitization stage is provided, for sampling, which is performed at a defined sampling rate, of an input signal fed to the digitization stage and converting it into digital data containing sampled values for the input signal, and an evaluation unit for determining a chronological location for the incoming signal by evaluating the digital data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Reto Stutz, Simon Bestler, Rainer Wohlgenannt, Jürg Hinderling
  • Patent number: 10175343
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention may relate to a rangefinder, in particular for a laser scanner, laser tracker, profiler, theodolite, or a total station. In a special embodiment of the invention, the light source of the rangefinder—provided for the emission of pulsed light signals—is configured here as an optical fiber amplifier (e.g. an EDFA, i.e. erbium-doped fiber amplifier) which is optically pumped by a superluminescent diode (SLD) operated in a pulsed manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: HEXAGON TECHNOLOGY CENTER GMBH
    Inventors: Reto Stutz, Jürg Hinderling