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This is a record of a document published elsewhere, first published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as US-4849643-A, on 18 July 1989. OpenTechnical did not first disclose it. The identifier, hashes and timestamps below record what this library served and when, not when the material became public. View the original.

OT-2026-000003480

Optical probe with overlapping detection fields

Published
Permanent URL
Classification
Sensors, Controls & Machine Vision › Position and Presence Sensing
Assignee
EATON LEONARD TECHNOLOGIES
Original source
US-4849643-A, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, 18 July 1989
Document SHA-256
4c6bc9ac3acc139a85b5b4e366b87181f7d7e86564c5d3e30faa51d5a9b730ed

An optical probe for measuring various parameters of bent pipe comprises a substantially U-shaped housing defining a sensitive area across which light is projected from within the housing toward first and second light sensors mounted to the legs of the probe and having fields of view directed toward the inner portion of the probe. A pipe positioned within the sensitive area of the probe occludes sections of the fields of view of the sensors, which occluded sections have a direct relation to the position of the pipe with respect to the probe. Positions of the occluded sections of the fields of view defines the position of the pipe relative to the probe. By moving the probe in a scanning path along the pipe, a large number of measurements are made so that a best fit line will effectively average a large number of measurements to more accurately define three dimensional position and orientation of the pipe centerline.

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Abstract

An optical probe for measuring various parameters of bent pipe comprises a substantially U-shaped housing defining a sensitive area across which light is projected from within the housing toward first and second light sensors mounted to the legs of the probe and having fields of view directed toward the inner portion of the probe. A pipe positioned within the sensitive area of the probe occludes sections of the fields of view of the sensors, which occluded sections have a direct relation to the position of the pipe with respect to the probe. Positions of the occluded sections of the fields of view defines the position of the pipe relative to the probe. By moving the probe in a scanning path along the pipe, a large number of measurements are made so that a best fit line will effectively average a large number of measurements to more accurately define three dimensional position and orientation of the pipe centerline.

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Publication information

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Citation

OpenTechnical Publication OT-2026-000003480, “Optical probe with overlapping detection fields,” published September 15, 2026 at 20:33:09 UTC, https://opentechnical.org/p/OT-2026-000003480.

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This record reproduces a document published elsewhere and is provided for reference and study. Rights in the original remain with its owner. See the publication policy.