Patent ID: 7538312

Claim:
A method for determining the position of one of two components in relative motion, with respect to each other, using optical means and comprising: directing at least one light beam emitted by a light source attached to a component towards a diffractive support attached to the second component, calculated and manufactured in order to generate an optical signal indicative of the positioning of said support, the optical signal being produced by the diffractive support in transmission and/or in reflection; detecting and reading at least one optical code formed by said signal, which corresponds to a unique position of the diffractive support relatively to the beam; assigning a position to each detected optical code; and outputting the position to a user; wherein each detected and read optical code is compared with electronic codes stored in a memory table for determining the position of the diffractive support; and wherein each optical code corresponding to a position of the diffractive support includes at least one optical synchronization structure, the detection of which allowing the triggering of the reading phase of the optical signal integrating the code of a position of the diffractive support relatively to the beam.