Patent ID: 6895100

Claim:
A method for identifying a key profile which comprises: simultaneously illuminating with two coplanar laminar beams emitted by two laser light sources the two sides of a shank of a key, driven to move axially relative to said beams, each beam being perpendicular to both a plane in which the shank of the key lies and to the axis of the shank of the key, simultaneously reading with two video cameras fixed relative to said laser light sources and having their optical axis inclined to the planes in which said light beams lie, said two light profiles formed by said laminar beams striking the two surfaces of the shank of said key, simultaneously digitizing the optical images read in this manner to obtain two sequences of signals representative of the profiles of the two lateral surface portions of the key, as instantaneously illuminated by said coplanar laminar beams and read by said video cameras, reconstructing from said signals, by means of a processor unit, a signal representative of the entire key profile and comparing the thus reconstructed signal with the signal representative of profiles stored in said processor unit to obtain data identifying the profile of said read key.