Patent ID: 7375621

Claim:
A distance indicating apparatus for determining the distance between a fixed object and a moving object, comprising: first and second spaced-apart projectors mounted on a selected one of the fixed object and the moving object for projecting first and second images onto a projection target surface of the selected one of the fixed object and the moving object, said first projector projecting said first image along a first path and said second projector projecting said second image along a second path, said first and second images creating a visual distance indication when the fixed object and the moving object are within a preselected distance from each other by projecting both the first and second images upon the projection target area in which both are visible, wherein one of the first and second images provides a distance indicating scale and the other of the first and second images provides an index for the distance indicating scale that moves relative to the distance indicating scale on the projection target area as the distance between the fixed object and the moving object varies and is less than the preselected distance.