Patent ID: 7030364

Claim:
A sensor comprising: one or more light-projecting components each having a light-projecting surface, said one or more light-projecting components being operable to irradiate light from said light-projecting surface; and one or more light-receiving components each having a light-receiving surface, said one or more light-receiving components being operable to receive at least a portion of the light irradiated from at least one of said one or more light-projecting components, wherein the received light is incident on said one or more light-receiving components receiving the light after the light has been reflected; wherein: said sensor is operable to detect one or more objects in one or more overlapping zones at which at least one projected light optical path of the light irradiated by at least one of said one or more light-projecting components at least partially overlaps at least one received light optical path of the light incident on at least one of said one or more light-receiving components; said sensor further comprises one or more optical path varying means for varying at least one of the at least one projected light optical path and the at least one received light optical path so as to physically vary at least one of the one or more overlapping zones; and at least one of said optical path varying means carries out an adjustment of optical sensitivity by at least one of increasing at least one extent of at least one of the one or more overlapping zones when said sensor carries out detection with respect to at least one distant zone, and decreasing at least one extent of at least one of the one or more overlapping zones when said sensor carries out detection with respect to at least one proximate zone; at least one of said optical path varying means comprises one or more translucent curved bodies disposed in at least one of the at least one projected optical path and the at least one received light optical path; at least one of said one or more translucent curved bodies comprises one or more flat components and one or more curved components formed in a continuous fashion; at least one of said one or more light-projecting components and at least one of said one or more light-receiving components are arrayed in a same order as at least one of said one or more flat components and at least one of said one or more curved components formed in the continuous fashion; and when said sensor carries out detection with respect to at least one distant zone, at least one of said one or more light-projecting components and at least one of said one or more light-receiving components are made to at least one of move and rotate from at least one of said one or more flat and toward at least one of said one or more curved components while maintaining a distance between at least a portion of said light-projecting and light-receiving surfaces of said one or more light-projecting and light-receiving components.