Patent ID: 7589824

Claim:
A device for measuring the radius of curvature of a surface, comprising: a main body that is held above the surface being measured; three non-contact sensors mounted to the main body, the three non-contact sensors comprising a central non-contact sensor mounted to the main body and a pair of peripheral non-contact sensors mounted to the main body at an angle, a, relative to the central sensor and symmetric with respect to the main sensor, the central sensor configured to measure distinct, independent distance d 2 of a line extending from point (x 2 ,y 2 ) on the surface being measured to point P and the pair of peripheral non-contact sensors configured to measure distinct, independent distances (d 1 and d 3 ) of two lines extending from respective points [(x 1 , y 1 ), (x 3 , y 3 )] on the surface being measured and converging at point P; and a computer processor mounted to the main body and configured to receive the distinct, independent measured distances d 1 , d 2 and d 3 and to calculate a radius of curvature of the surface based on the distinct, independent measured distances d 1 , d 2 , and d 3 .