Abstract: A semiconductor optical sensing apparatus is formed of a casing made of an electrically insulative material and having at least one opening at a bottom portion; a wiring device extending from an inside to an outside of the casing; a semiconductor optical sensor chip bonded to the bottom portion of the casing; and a connecting device for connecting a terminal of the sensor chip and the wiring device. A transparent filler is filled in a space inside the casing to cover the sensor chip, wherein the opening absorbs a volume change of the transparent filler caused by expansion or contraction thereof. A focusing device is connected to the casing and located at a position to focus an image on the sensor chip. The focusing device and casing are made of the same material or materials having substantially same thermal expansion coefficients.

Abstract: The range finder measures the distance to the object based on the principle of triangulation, and includes a pair of lenses; a lens supporting frame; a CCD supporting plate; CCD packages supported by the plate; and temperature sensors. One sensor is positioned on the frame between the lenses, and the other is positioned on the plate between the CCD packages. Each CCD package includes a CCD chip located at a focal plane of the lens, a casing and a transparent plate. The lenses, frame, casing and transparent plates are made of the same plastic material so that the thermal expansion of the entire range finder caused by the temperature change may not affect to the distance measurement. Bonding ribs connected to the transparent plate are located near an image ray hole to face each other and on the line perpendicular to the optical axis of the CCD chip and the plane containing the optical axes of the CCD chips.

Abstract: A measuring instrument is formed of an image pickup device having a pair of image-forming lenses and photosensor arrays; and an arithmetic device using two images of a measured object photographed by the image pickup device to calculate the distance to the object based on the principle of triangulation. The image-forming lenses, a first holding member for the image-forming lenses and a second holding member for the photosensor arrays are formed of the same plastic material without hygroscopicity. Changes in size of the measuring instrument by ambient temperature and humidity are prevented to increase distant measurement accuracy.

Abstract: A distance measuring apparatus of the invention includes an arithmetic operation device which uses the degree of shift detected when the distance to a reference object is measured and a known distance to the reference object, to determine the difference between the offsets of image-forming positions on optical sensor arrays caused by a windshield present between a measuring object and the optical sensor arrays. The arithmetic operation device uses the difference between the offsets of the image-forming positions, an optical characteristic amount of the image-forming lenses, and the amount of shift detected when the distance to the measuring object is measured, to determine the distance to the measuring object.