What is claimed is:
1. A utensil sorting apparatus for simultaneously sorting a plurality of utensils, including at least first and second utensils, the apparatus comprising:
a) a template having a plurality of first apertures sized to receive therethrough only the first utensils; and
b) a movable conveyor, movably disposed across the template and the first apertures, configured to move the first and second utensils across the first apertures in the template, and sequentially through at least two locations, including:
i) a receiving location to receive at least one of the first and second utensils; and
ii) a first sorting location to pass any first utensil through the first apertures in the template.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the template further includes a plurality of second apertures sized to receive therethrough only the second utensils; and wherein the conveyor is further configured to move through a second sorting location to pass any second utensil through the second apertures in the template.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the template further includes a plurality of third apertures sized to receive therethrough only third utensils; and wherein the conveyor is further configured to move through a third sorting location to pass any third utensil through the third apertures in the template.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conveyor has a plurality of partitions formed thereon defining a plurality of pockets therebetween configured to receive the first utensils, each pocket having an opening movable across the template and the first apertures.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:
a plurality of bars, each disposed laterally across one of the first apertures in the template at a location configured to correspond to midpoints of the respective first utensils, such that centers of gravity of the first utensils are disposed on either side of the respective bar as the first utensils are moved across the first apertures in the template, tending to cause the first utensils to pass through the first apertures in the template on a same side of the respective bar as the center of gravity, thus orienting the first utensils.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the template is a frusto-conical interior core, and wherein the conveyor is a frusto-conical exterior shell, rotatably disposed on the core.
7. A utensil sorting apparatus configured to sort a plurality of utensils, including at least first and second different utensils, the apparatus comprising:
a) a template having at least one aperture sized to receive therethrough only the first utensils;
b) the template having a frusto-conical shape; and
c) a movable conveyor, movably disposed over the template and the at least one aperture, to sequentially move the first and second utensils across the aperture; and
d) the movable conveyor having a frusto-conical shape.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the moving conveyor is configured to move the first and second utensils across the aperture in the template, and sequentially through at least two locations, including:
a) a receiving location to receive at least one of the first and second utensils; and
b) a sorting location to pass any first utensil through the aperture in the template.
9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the conveyor has a plurality of partitions formed thereon defining a plurality of pockets therebetween configured to receive the first and second utensils, each pocket having an opening movable across the template and the at least one aperture.
10. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:
a bar, disposed laterally across the aperture in the template at a location configured to correspond to a midpoint of the first utensils, such that centers of gravity of the first utensils are disposed on either side of the bar as the first utensils are moved across the aperture in the template, tending to cause the first utensils to pass through the aperture in the template on a same side of the bar as the center of gravity, thus orienting the first utensils.
11. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising a plurality of apertures in the template configured to simultaneously sort a plurality of utensils.
12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the template further includes at least a second aperture sized to receive therethrough the second utensils.
13. A method for sorting a plurality of utensils, including at least first and second utensils, the method comprising the steps of:
a) simultaneously receiving a plurality of utensils on a movable conveyor;
b) simultaneously moving each of the plurality of utensils past one of a plurality of apertures in a template by moving the conveyor, the apertures being sized to receive only the first utensils; and
c) simultaneously moving any remaining second utensils past the plurality of apertures.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of:
simultaneously moving any remaining second utensils past one of a plurality of second apertures in the template by moving the conveyor, the second apertures being sized to receive only the second utensils.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:
simultaneously moving any remaining third utensils past one of a plurality of third apertures in the template by moving the conveyor, the third apertures being sized to receive the third utensils.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein step a) further comprises simultaneously receiving the plurality of utensils each into one of a first plurality of pockets on the movable conveyor.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein step b) further comprises simultaneously receiving an additional plurality of utensils each into one of a second plurality of pockets on the movable conveyor.
18. The method of claim 13, wherein step b) further comprises simultaneously orienting the first utensils while the first utensils pass through the apertures.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising moving the plurality of utensils past a plurality of bars each disposed over one of the apertures at a location corresponding to midpoints of the first utensils; and allowing centers of gravity of the first utensils to cause the first utensils to pass through the apertures on a side of the bar corresponding to the centers of gravity of the first utensils, thus orienting the first utensils.
20. The method of claim 13, wherein the template is a frusto-conical interior core, and wherein the conveyor is a frusto-conical exterior shell, rotatably disposed on the core.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a Device-Under-Test (DUT), including the steps of:
directing an optical wavefront, generated by a source, towards a test location;
generating at least one ray from the wavefront at the test location;
for each ray:
at two or more measurement planes, each measurement plane transverse to the direction of travel of the wavefront and beyond the test location relative to the source and at different optical path distances, measuring respective points of intersection of the ray with the measurement planes with and without the DUT at the test location;
determining the transverse aberration due to the DUT for the ray at each measurement plane; and,
for each measurement plane estimating from the determined transverse aberrations the coefficients of a general transverse aberration equation, the coefficients of which are the product of a combination of optical characteristics and the optical distance between the measurement plane and the appropriate principal plane of the DUT; and,
calculating the optical characteristic from the estimates of the coefficients for each measurement plane and the optical distances between respective measurement planes.
2. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein cardinal points and the associated cardinal planes are related to the principal plane of the DUT and wherein either the cardinal points or the cardinal planes are used to ascertain the principal plane.
3. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 including estimating the product of a combination of optical characteristics and the optical distance between the measurement plane and the appropriate principal plane of the DUT, and then using the difference in optical distance between the respective measurement planes to ascertain the principal plane.
4. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the optical distance between the principal plane and one of the measurement planes is known, the method including the step of determining the optical distance between the measurement planes.
5. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the general transverse aberration equations are derived from the general wavefront equation, and the method includes estimating coefficients of the general transverse aberration equations by solving simultaneously equations derived from the general transverse aberration equations.
6. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the calculation of the optical characteristic is by subtracting the estimates of the coefficients for each measurement plane from each other and dividing by the respective distance between the planes.
7. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 6 wherein there are more than two planes and the value for the optical characteristic obtained from different plane pairs is averaged to provide a composite estimate.
8. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the step of measuring points of intersection of ray and measurement plane includes:
at a first of the planes:
determining a first point or first points of the intersection of the ray or each ray with the first plane without the DUT at the test location;
determining a second point or second points of the intersection of the ray or each ray with the first plane with the DUT in the test location; and,
at a second of the planes:
determining a third point or third points of the intersection of the ray or each ray with the second plane without the DUT at the test location;
determining a fourth point or fourth points of the intersection of the ray or each ray with the second plane with the D.U.T in the test location.
9. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the step of determining the transverse aberrations includes
calculating a first transverse aberration by subtracting the respective first point from the second point; and,
calculating a second transverse aberration by subtracting the respective third point from the fourth point.
10. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the step of determining the coefficients of the general transverse aberration equation includes:
differentiating the general wavefront equation to provide the general transverse aberration equations;
for the first plane:
solving the general transverse aberration equations or simultaneous forms of the general transverse equations for the values of the coefficients using the first point, third point and first transverse aberration of respective rays; and,
for the second plane:
solving the general transverse aberration equation or simultaneous forms of the general transverse equations for the values of the coefficients using the first point, third point and second transverse aberration of respective rays.
11. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the step of estimating the optical characteristic includes:
subtracting respective coefficients for the first and second planes and dividing by the optical path distance between the first and second planes.
12. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the first and second optical path distances are achieved by measuring the ray intersections at two physically spaced transverse planes.
13. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein an optical slab of known refractive index and thickness is inserted thereby effecting a known alteration in optical path distance without altering the physical plane where the ray intersections are measured.
14. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein there are a plurality of rays generated and the method is used to determine a number of coefficients of a general wavefront equation.
15. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 14 wherein for each ray the coefficients are determined using adjacent rays to enable the simultaneous solution of a number of equations to determine the values of the coefficients.
16. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein, the wavefront equation is composed of a sum of monomials.
17. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the wavefront equation is composed of a sum of Zernike polynomials.
18. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the Grant-Schmidt orthogonalisation is used to transform the wavefront equation into one composed of a sum of polynomials that are orthogonal over the data set.
19. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein regression analysis is used to estimate the coefficients in the wavefront equation.
20. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 19 wherein the regression analysis is by least squares estimation.
21. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the coefficients in the wavefront equation are estimated by either a grid search, a gradient search or a ravine search.
22. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein a genetic algorithm is used to establish the best estimate of the coefficients.
23. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the DUT is selected from the group selected from a lens, a mirror, a prism or a combination of optics.
24. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the optical characteristics are plotted as a map.
25. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the method is used to ascertain optical aberrations in the DUT
26. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the method is used to align the DUT and an incident optical wavefront.
27. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 1 wherein the method allows an assessment to be made as to whether the optic suits a particular application.
28. A method of estimating one or more optical characteristics of a DUT as in claim 27 wherein the method is used for testing ophthalmic lenses.
29. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT including:
means for directing an optical wavefront, generated by a source, towards a test location;
ray generation means for generating at least one ray from the wavefront;
detector means for measuring respective points of intersection of each ray at two of more measurement planes with and without the DUT at the test location, each plane being transverse to the direction of travel of the wavefront, beyond the test location relative to the source, and at different optical path distances; and,
processing means for calculating the transverse aberration due to the DUT for each ray at each plane, estimating for each plane from the determined transverse aberrations the coefficients of a general transverse aberration equation, the coefficients of which are the product of a combination of optical characteristics and optical distance between the plane and the principal plane of the DUT, and estimating the optical characteristic from the estimates of the coefficients for each plane and the optical distances between respective planes.
30. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the detector means includes a charge coupled device (CCD) camera which is locatable at the measurement planes.
31. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the detector means is a scanning detector.
32. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the detector means is a screen.
33. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 32 wherein the screen is an optically translucent screen, upon which the rays may be projected and is locatable at the measurement planes.
34. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the displayed image on the screen is imaged onto a CCD camera.
35. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the processing means is a computer including interface means for communication with the CCD camera, memory means for storing data and instructions, and output means for provision of results.
36. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the output means is a video display.
37. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the ray generation means includes a Hartmann plate.
38. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the ray generation means includes a movable or scannable aperture.
39. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the ray generation means is located between the light source and the DUT
40. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the ray generation means may be located between the DUT and the detector means.
41. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein the detector means includes means for selective placement of a transparent optical slab of known properties between the DUT and the camera to thereby produce the optical path difference between the measurement planes.
42. An apparatus for estimating an optical characteristic of a DUT as in claim 29 wherein a beam splitter is used to split each ray into at least two and there are two detector means, at different measurement planes to detect the split rays.