Patent ID: 7140783

Claim:
A method of aligning an input port of a first device to an output port of a second device using an aligment apparatus having a plurality of scan resolutions comprising lowest, intermediate, and highest settings, the input port having a face and the output port having a face the method comprising the steps of: a) activating the second device to emit a signal via the output port; b) designating an alignment data point on the face of the output port; c) initializing a current setting of the scan resution to the lowest setting; d) designating at least three perimeter data points disposed around the alignment data point in a planar geometric configuration at respectively predetermined distances from the alignment data point according to the current setting of the scan resolution; e) obtaining a measure of alignment quality at the alignment data point by translating one of the face of the input port and the face of the output port with respect to another one of the face of the output port and the face of the input port to the alignment data point; f) obtaining further measures of alignment quality at each of the perimeter data points by translating the face of the input port with respect to the face of the output port to each of the perimeter data points; g) aligning the face of the input port to the alignment data point having a highest measure of alignment quality; h) designating a new alignment data point at one of the alignment and perimeter data points having the highest measure of alignment quality; i) setting the scan resolution to a higher setting if the new alignment data point is at the same location as the alignment data point and if the current setting of the scan resolution is not at the highest setting after step h; and j) repeating steps d–i, wherein the at least three perimeter data points are disposed around the new alignment data point.