Optical scanning disposition

Claim 2

Optical scanning disposition for scanning equally spaced characters arranged in a line on a record, said characters being parts of a group of different characters, said disposition comprising a source of radiant energy, means for receiving energy from said source and for directing emission from said source toward a localized portion of said record, means confining said emission so that it fills an entire constant area on said record circumscribing at any one instant a single character without illuminating other characters, means for displacing said area along said line without displacing the record along said line and while avoiding significant simultaneous illumination of two adjacent characters thereby to illuminate different characters successively, a master having a plurality of characters arranged thereon which are identical with the characters of said group, rotating means positioned in operative relation to said record and including a plurality of lenses for scanning said line, means for projecting each character of said record, as it is illuminated and scanned, through one of said lenses adjacent a point close to the axis of said rotating means to form an image of each entire character of said line successively at said point, and means for projecting the images from said point to said master for comparing each such image with the characters arranged on said master.

Claim 3

Optical scanning disposition according to claim 1, wherein the means for displacing the illuminated area is a rotor having a plurality of identical lenses arranged in a circle concentric with its axis and disposed upon rotation thereof, to cause said lenses to register successively with the characters on said record, and the means for forming images of the successively illuminated characters adjacent a common point includes light-directing means carried by said same rotor.

Claim 4

Optical scanning disposition according to claim 1, wherein stationary refractory means are provided for simultaneously forming as many images of the area adjacent said common point as there are different characters in said group, for comparison with the characters of said group.

Claim 5

An optical scanning disposition according to claim 1 having means for generating a signal when such an image is identical with a character on the master.

Claim 6

An optical scanning disposition according to claim 4 wherein said signal generating means includes a plurality of photoelectric cells, one of which is associated with each character on said master.

Claim 7

In an optical scanning disposition, a pair of coaxial rotors containing, respectively, lens sets of different numbers, the lenses of each set being arranged in a circle about the rotor axis, means for emitting light outwardly of the rotor axis from a restricted area through the lenses of both rotors to form an image of said area on a record bearing different characters, said image embracing the area of one complete character without materially illuminating adjacent characters, and means for turning said rotors at different rotational speeds in timed relation to hold said image for an instant on each character to scan each character, whereby the rotor with the larger number of lenses turns relatively to the other roTor through one spacing of its lenses per scanned character.

Claim 8

In an optical scanning disposition, a pair of coaxial rotors containing, respectively, lens sets of different numbers, the lenses of each set being arranged in a circle about the rotor axis, means for emitting light outwardly of the rotor axis from a restricted area through the lenses of both rotors to form an image of said area on a record bearing different characters, said image embracing the area of one complete character without materially illuminating adjacent characters, and means for turning said rotors at different rotational speeds in timed relation to hold said image for an instant on each character to scan each character, whereby the rotor with the larger number of lenses turns relatively to the other roTor through one spacing of its lenses per scanned character.

Claim 9

In an optical scanning disposition, a pair of coaxial rotors mounted one within the other, each rotor carrying a plurality of lenses arranged in a circle about the common axis of said rotors but the number of lenses on one rotor being different from the number of lenses on the other rotor, a refractory member disposed outside said rotors but having a refractory surface coaxial therewith, means for pressing a record containing a group of different characters arranged in a line against said refractory surface, means for emitting light outwardly of said common axis from a restricted area through the lenses of both rotors to form an image of said area on the record, said image embracing the area of one complete character without materially illuminating adjacent characters, means for turning said rotors at different speeds in timed relation to hold said image for an instant on each character to scan each character, the rotor with the larger number of lenses turning relatively to the other rotor through one spacing of its lenses per scanned character, means for feeding said record over said refractory surface in a direction perpendicular to its line of characters, and a master having different characters identical with those on said record, and reflecting means for gathering the rays of light from said refractory surface and record to form an image of each character, when scanned, at and around a point lying on said common axis, and for reflecting said images onto said master, said record, said scanning means, and said master being optically aligned.

Claim 10

In an optical scanning disposition, a pair of coaxial rotors mounted one within the other, each rotor carrying a plurality of lenses arranged in a circle about the common axis of said rotors but the number of lenses on one rotor being different from the number of lenses on the other rotor, a refractory member disposed outside said rotors but having a refractory surface coaxial therewith, means for pressing a record containing a group of different characters arranged in a line against said refractory surface, means for emitting light outwardly of said common axis from a restricted area through the lenses of both rotors to form an image of said area on the record, said image embracing the area of one complete character without materially illuminating adjacent characters, means for turning said rotors at different speeds in timed relation to hold said image for an instant on each character to scan each character, the rotor with the larger number of lenses turning relatively to the other rotor through one spacing of its lenses per scanned character, means for feeding said record over said refractory surface in a direction perpendicular to its line of characters, and a master having different characters identical with those on said record, and reflecting means for gathering the rays of light from said refractory surface and record to form an image of each character, when scanned, at and around a point lying on said common axis, and for reflecting said images onto said master, said record, said scanning means, and said master being optically aligned.

Claim 11

An optical scanning disposition as claimed in claim 7, wherein said reflecting means includes a third set of lenses mounted on the rotor, which carries the smaller number of the first-named lenses, said third set of lenses being also arranged in a circle about said common axis and being in optical registry with said refractory surface.