Patent ID: 6717649
Filing Date: 2004-04-06
Classification: G03B,G03C

Abstract:
Apparatus for forming a lenticular image product from a sheet of lenticular material having one side forming an array of cylindrical lenses having a pitch between lenses and a flat opposite side and a photographic emulsion coated on the flat side, said emulsion having a range of wavelength sensitivity comprising:means for 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; means for 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; means for moving the lenticular material 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 beam of light; and a position sensor for sensing the position but not the intensity of the angularly modulated second beam of light to control the motion of the lenticular material; and further comprising: means for moving the lenticular material by a known distance relative to the second beam of light; means for sensing the number of cycles that the angularly modulated second beam of light swings from one extreme to the other during the motion; means for computing the pitch by dividing the number of beam swings by the known distance; and means for controlling the motion of the lenticular material as a function of the pitch.