Patent ID: 6935193

Claim:
A steering-wheel angular sensor for measuring an angle of a rotatable body, the device comprising at least first and second devices operative for outputting different signals to an evaluation circuit in response to a rotation of the rotatable body, each of said devices including two optically readable code tracks and one optical sensor assigned to each of said code tracks, said sensor being formed to detect only signals from an assigned one of said code tracks and sending information as electrical signals to the evaluation circuit, each of said code tracks having numerous optically detectable markings, provided so that a number of said markings on one side of said code tracks is equal to n, and a number of said markings on the other of said code tracks equals n+b 1 , so that the angle is measurable by a modified vernier method in accordance with the formula: φ = ( α + β ) 2 + k * 180 ° * ( 1 / n + 1 ) + 1 / n ⁢ ) , wherein α and β are measured values of the sensor, n is a number of pole pairs, and k is a whole number.