Patent ID: 8773667

Claim:
A retroreflector probe adapter apparatus, comprising: a spherically mounted retroreflector (SMR) having a cube-corner retroreflector embedded within a metal sphere, the metal sphere having a spherical surface, the spherical surface having a sphere center, the cube-corner retroreflector including three mutually perpendicular mirrors, the three mirrors intersecting in a common vertex point coincident with the sphere center; and an adapter including a holder, an endplate, and a member, the holder configured to receive the SMR, the endplate having a rounded outer surface with a radius of curvature R, the member having a first end attached to the holder and a second end attached to the endplate, wherein a distance from the center of the SMR, when received by the holder, to any point on the rounded outer surface of the endplate is equal to the radius of curvature R, the points on the rounded outer surface of the endplate lying on a virtual sphere having as its center the sphere center, wherein the endplate is shaped as a segment of the virtual sphere to contact points to be measured on a surface.