초록 ▼

An auto focus system includes first and second detector arrays which receive first and second detection images of an object. The detection images are displaced from each other by a distance which depends upon the distance to a remote object. The detector arrays produce output signals which vary with

An auto focus system includes first and second detector arrays which receive first and second detection images of an object. The detection images are displaced from each other by a distance which depends upon the distance to a remote object. The detector arrays produce output signals which vary with the position of the detection images and thus with the distance to the object. The output signals are processed to provide a resultant signal indicative of the distance to the object and this signal may be used, for example, to control the position of a lens in a photographic camera.

대표청구항 ▼

Range sensing apparatus comprising in combination: first radiation sensing means operable to produce a first output signal of magnitude that varies with the quantity of radiation thereon, said first radiation sensing means positioned so as to receive radiation from a remote object along a first path

Range sensing apparatus comprising in combination: first radiation sensing means operable to produce a first output signal of magnitude that varies with the quantity of radiation thereon, said first radiation sensing means positioned so as to receive radiation from a remote object along a first path; second radiation sensing means comprising a plurality of radiation detectors each operable to produce an output signal of magnitude that varies with the quantity of radiation thereon, said second radiation sensing means positioned so as to receive radiation from the remote object along a second path when the object is at a first range and along a third path when the object is at a second range, correlation being indicated when the sum of the radiation falling upon a first and a second of the radiation detectors of said second radiation sensing means being approximately the same as the radiation falling on said first radiation sensing means showing that the object is proximate the first range and correlation being indicated when the sum of the radiation falling upon the second and a third of the radiation detectors of said second radiation sensing means being approximately the same as the radiation falling on said first radiation sensing means showing that the object is proximate the second range combining means operable in a first condition to connect the first and the second of the radiation detectors of said second sensing means to provide a first combined signal which varies with the sum of the output signals of the first and the second of the radiation detectors of said second sensing means and operable in a second condition to connect the second and the third of the radiation detectors of said second sensing means to provide a second combined signal which varies with the sum of the output signals of the second and the third of the radiation detectors of said second sensing means; and means connected to said first radiation sensing means and to said combining means to compare the first output signal with the first combined signal and to compare the first output signal with the second combined signal and producing a resultant signal indicative of which comparison provided the closest correlation.