Patent ID: 7701557

Claim:
A device for monitoring a space, comprising: a transmitter emitting light with temporal intensity changes; a receiver having one-dimensional resolution, said receiver being formed by a row of sensor elements with a multiplicity of sensor elements disposed next to one another; an optical system, for assigning to said receiver a field of view, disposed in a radiation path in front of said receiver; said receiver receiving radiation pulses emitted by said transmitter into the field of view; an evaluation unit connected to said receiver and to said transmitter, said evaluation unit serving to determine a transit time of the radiation pulses; said transmitter subjecting the field of view to radiation pulse beams and mounting a light curtain in a direction of the space to be monitored, and thus to delimit a defined spatial area; said evaluation unit determining the transit time of the radiation pulse beams upon an entry of an object through the light curtain and into the defined spatial area, and thereby being provided information about a position of the object in the light curtain; and an anamorphotic optical system disposed to compress the field of view onto said receiver.