DISTANCE SENSOR

• Main Author: MIYATA MASASHI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 19.09.1997
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS; MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEARDIMENSIONS; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; TESTING

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the speed of a measurement by performing the switching of a modulated light to an external optical path and to reference light path by an optical path switching means for electrically changing the polarizing characteristic of the modulated light. SOLUTION: A polarizing axis controller 4 outputs a linear polarized pulse light inputted from a polarizer 3 to a polarizing divider 5 in the state where the polarization axis is left as it is, or after it is rotated 90 according to a polarizing axis control signal. An arithmetic processing circuit 13 lays the polarization control signal to the controller 4 into ON state to set a reference optical path measurement mode where the light passes a reference optical path, and outputs a start signal simultaneously to a pulse driving circuit 1 and a time measuring circuit 12. The circuit 13 calculates the distance of the reference optical path from the time measurement data and the luminous flux. The circuit 13 then lays the polarization control signal into OFF state to set an external optical path measurement mode where the light passes an external optical path. The distance of the external optical path is calculated from the time measurement data inputted to the circuit 12 and the luminous flux. The reference optical path length is subtracted from the external optical path length to determine the distance.