Abstract: An optical location system having a beam projection device (11, 51, 12, 13) to illuminate the field of view, and a detector array (29) to detect reflected light (21) from the field of view. The projected beam (13) is incrementably progressed across the field of view and for each increment the reflected points of light (61) detected by the detector (29) are recorded to build a map of the field of view, which is stored as a sparse array having as its first coordinate the angle of projection (A) of the illuminating beam (13) and as its second coordinate the azimuth angle (B) of the reflected ray detected by the detector. The value stored in each element of the array is the angle of the incidence (C) of the horizontal component of the detected ray with the detector.

Abstract: Robot vision and optical location systems capable of recovery of "depth" information normally lost from the two-dimensional image collected by a conventional image system comprises a radiation source for projecting a beam of light or other suitable radiation from a known location onto a field of vision in a manner that provides information indicating the direction of projection of the beam, a detection device situated at a second known location for receiving light or other radiation of the projected beam, scattered or reflected by objects within the field of vision and providing information indicating the direction of the source of scattered or reflected radiation and an analyzer for comparing the projection location, direction of projection, detection location and direction of the source of detected, scattered or reflected radiation to determine the location of objects in the field of vision.

Abstract: A charged particle beam focussing device in which a pair of rod like electrodes having a potential difference maintained between them are arranged on either side of the path of a beam to be focussed. The configuration of the electrodes is such that the significant electric field between them is confined to a short section of the path of the particles. A second pair of similar electrodes are arranged parallel to and in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of the first pair and displaced in a direction parallel to the plane in which the first pair lie, a potential difference being maintained between the second pair of electrodes. The arrangement is such that by variation of the potentials between the electrodes a beam of charged particles passing along the beam path between the electrodes can be caused to come to a focal line in a predetermined plane. A further device arranged at right angles to the first beam is provided to bring the beam to a point focus.