Nope, I meant a Michaelson interferrometer. This has a single detector is used and it counts interference fringes as the distance between the diaphragm and laser changes. So you are actually measuring displacement to the accuracy of a wavelength of light, and using a counting process (which is truly digital in my book). I suppose you have to make the diaphragm only vibrate in its lowest mode. You also need a coherent light source (LEDs won't do 8-)
But since I can't find any references to this (I've just looked again), it is probably a joke I didn't get. Let's patent it anyway 8-) The technology needed is described here (but not in a high quality application): http://www.williamson-labs.com/laser-mic.htm Nick/ On Tuesday 05 Mar 2002 3:06 pm, you wrote: > What you are making in itself is an analog to digital > converter. Questions that pop off the top of my head: > > 1. different angles will have different lengths to the > detectors, are you thinking of making the detectors curve > to the geometric shape? > > 2. Since the laser will not be a point but a spreading of > light, how will that affect the spreading at different > angles on a curves surface, will you hit too many bits at > once? > > 3. The mass of the object and its center point holding > method will probably provide some distortion due to > momentum change and spring like affects. > > 4. As I can see it, each optical detector is a level > indicator. To get the same resolution as a 16-bit A/D you > would need 65000 detectors, is that feasible? > > Rick > +------------------------+-----------------------+ > > | T a l i t y | +------+ | > > +------------------------+ +----+-+ | | > > | Richard Burnett | +-+ | | > | Senior Design Engineer +---+ +----+ | > | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | | > | > | Phone: 919.380.3014 | | > | Fax: 919.380.3903 | | | > > +------------------------------------------------+
