Patent ID: 8107062

Claim:
A method of determining alignment characteristics of a tire and wheel assembly mounted on a vehicle, said method comprising: projecting a plurality of light planes from a first light projector onto a tire and wheel assembly to form a plurality of generally parallel illumination lines on a tire of the tire and wheel assembly; projecting a single light plane from a second light projector onto the tire and wheel assembly to form a single reference illumination line on the tire of the tire and wheel assembly; receiving a reflected image of said reference illumination line from the tire with a photo electric device; receiving a reflected image of at least some of said generally parallel illumination lines with said photo electric device, said photo electric device receiving images of said generally parallel illumination lines reflected from the tire at an angle relative to a projecting angle of said first light projector; determining a reference distance from said reference illumination line to a noncontact wheel alignment sensor including said first light projector and said second light projector and said photo electric device; and determining a plane defined by spatial coordinates from a selected point located on each said generally parallel illumination line imaged by said photo electric device, said plane representing the orientation of the tire and wheel assembly.