ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,586,222, issued on March 24, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).
"Shape-data acquisition apparatus" was invented by Hiroaki Kuwabara (Kanagawa, Japan) and Shu Takahashi (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A shape-data acquisition apparatus obtains shape data of a work surface and includes an illuminator, a transmissive optical element, and an imager. The illuminator has a luminance distribution of a first cycle to irradiate the work surface. The transmissive optical element faces specular reflected light reflected by the work surface and has a transmittance distribution of a second cycle. The imager receives the spec...