Claims
- 1. A method of sensing the pitch or relative location of a lenticular lens on a sheet of transparent lenticular material of the type having a repeating pattern of cylindrical lenses on one side and a flat opposite side, comprising the steps of:
forming a beam of light; focusing the beam of light into a spot smaller than the pitch of the cylindrical lenses onto the lenticular material; moving the lenticular material relative to the beam in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the cylindrical lenses to modulate the angle of reflection or refraction of the beam of light; and sensing the position of the modulated beam of light to determine the pitch or relative location of lenticular material to the focused spot.
- 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
moving the lenticular material by a known distance relative to the beam; sensing the number of cycles that the modulated beam swings from one extreme to the other during the motion; and computing the pitch by dividing the number of bean swings by the known distance.
- 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
moving the lenticular material until the modulated beam swings through a predetermined number of cycles; measuring the distance that the material moves during the predetermined number of cycles; and computing the pitch by dividing the predetermined number of beam swings by the measured distance.
- 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
moving the lenticular material at a constant velocity until the modulated beam swings through a predetermined number of cycles; measuring the time that the material moves during the predetermined number of cycles; and computing the pitch by dividing the predetermined number of beam swings by the product of the measured time and the known velocity of the media.
- 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
controlling the motion of the lenticular material such that a predetermined number of lenticular lenses pass through the beam in a unit of time.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the lenticular material includes a photographic emulsion sensitive to a range of wavelengths and wherein the wavelength of the beam of light is outside of the range of emulsion sensitivity.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the position of the modulated beam of light is sensed by a photosensor.
- 8. A method of forming a lenticular image product, comprising the steps of:
providing a sheet of lenticular material having an array of cylindrical lenses on one side, a flat opposite side, and a photographic emulsion coated on the flat opposite side; scanning the flat side of the lenticular material with an intensity modulated first beam of light in a direction parallel to the long axes of the cylindrical lenses to form a latent lenticular image in the photographic emulsion; focusing a second beam of light having a wavelength outside of the range of sensitivity of the photographic emulsion into a spot smaller than the pitch of the cylindrical lenses onto the lenticular material; moving the lenticular material relative to the second beam in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the cylindrical lenses to provide a page scan motion of the lenticular material and to modulate the angle of reflection or refraction of the second bean of light; and sensing the position of the angularly modulated second beam of light to control the motion of the lenticular material.
- 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
producing a periodic signal representing the position of the angle modulated beam; providing a reference clock; computing the phase error between the reference clock and the periodic signal; and employing the phase error to control the motion of the lenticular material.
- 10. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
moving the lenticular material by a known distance relative to the beam; sensing the number of cycles that the modulated beam swings from one extreme to the other during the motion; computing the pitch by dividing the number of beam swings by the known distance; and controlling the motion of the lenticular material as a function of the pitch.
- 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
moving the lenticular material until the modulated beam swings through a predetermined number of cycles; measuring the distance that the material moves during the predetermined number of cycles; computing the pitch by dividing the predetermined number of beam swings by the measured distance; and controlling the motion of the lenticular material as a function of the pitch.
- 12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
moving the lenticular material at a constant velocity until the modulated beam swings through a predetermined number of cycles; measuring the time that the material moves during the predetermined number of cycles; computing the pitch by multiplying the predetermined number of beam swings by the measured time and dividing the product by the known velocity; and controlling the motion of the lenticular material as a function of the pitch.
- 13. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:
controlling the motion of the lenticular material such that a predetermined number of lenticular lenses pass through the beam in a unit of time.
- 14. The method of claim 8, wherein the position of the modulated beam of light is sensed by a photosensor.
- 15. A lenticular image product produced by the method of claim 8.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/766,432 filed Jan. 19, 2001, which is a Divisional of U.S. patent application U.S. Ser. No. 09/033,212 filed Mar. 2, 1998, which is a Continuation-in-Part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 828,637 filed Mar. 31, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,194, issued Nov. 10, 1998.
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09033212 |
Mar 1998 |
US |
Child |
09766432 |
Jan 2001 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09766432 |
Jan 2001 |
US |
Child |
10116889 |
Apr 2002 |
US |
Parent |
08828637 |
Mar 1997 |
US |
Child |
09033212 |
Mar 1998 |
US |