Ultrasonic rangefinder

4739860
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Inventors

Kobayashi, Hiroshi
Obayashi, Hiroaki

Application #

737937

Filed

May-28-1985

Published

Apr-26-1988

Current US Class

181/123
181/139
181/144
181/148
181/151
181/152
181/160
181/177
367/140
367/99

International Classes

G01S 015/00; H05K 005/00; G10K 013/00; H04R 007/00; 169; 210; 151; 152; 160; 177

Field of Search

181/108 181/138 181/139 181/140 181/141 181/144 181/145 181/148 181/123 181/124 181/182 181/186 181/189 181/190 181/195 181/198 181/199 181/206 181/232 367/87 367/91 367/92 367/99 367/118 367/162 367/173 367/176 367/910

Assignee

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (Yokohama, JP)

Examiners

Kyle; Deborah L.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Schwartz, Jeffery, Schwaab, Mack, Blumenthal & Evans

US Patent References

4463049   Sound-absorbing w...

Referenced by:

View Backward References

Citation

Cite This Patent

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Abstract
An ultrasonic rangefinder capable of detecting a distance between a vehicle and an object with high accuracy is shown. The measurements for microphones for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves are chosen so that detour waves are restricted.
 
Claims
What is claimed is:

1. An ultrasonic rangefinder comprising:

ultrasonic wave transmitting means having a transmitting surface,

ultrasonic wave receiving means having a receiving surface,

at least one of the wave transmitting means and the wave receiving means further including:

(a) a horn; and

(b) a straight tubular section provided between at least one of the transmitting surface and receiving surface and said horn, said straight tubular section being shaped to satisfy the condition x=k(r.sup.2 /.lambda.)

wherein x is the length of the straight tubular section, r is the radius of the at least one of the transmitting surface and receiving surface, .lambda. is the wave length of the ultrasonic wave signal and k is a constant.



Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic rangefinder which is used to transmit and receive an ultrasonic wave signal for the detection of the distance from an object and, in particular, to improvements of an ultrasonic rangefinder for preventing a detour wave from reducing the accuracy of the detection.

There are already several ultrasonic rangefinders in existence, for example the one described in Utility Model Published Application No. Sho 57-68574. Such a device emits ultrasonic waves from an ultrasonic wave transmitter and receives pulses reflected from an object by an ultrasonic wave receiver. The distance is found from the phase difference between the emitted pulse and the received pulse.

As technically discussed in the art, received waves on a receiver include a detour wave which reduces the accuracy of detection. In a rangefinder, paticularly in a rangefinder which detects the vehicle height (the distance from the undersurface of the body of the vehicle to the ground), as disclosed in Japanese Patent Published Application No. Sho 57-182544, the reflected wave and the detour wave partially overlap, because the detected distance is short, (15 to 40 cm).
 
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