An optical sensor for a delivery device having a piston that displaces a substance, such as a fluid, from a reservoir. The optical sensor has a light source and a detector array for imaging encoding features disposed along a plunger rod coupled to the piston. By virtue of the pattern of encoding features, an absolute position of the plunger rod relative to a fiducial position may be determined uniquely. Thus, the volume of fluid remaining in the reservoir, the rate of fluid delivery, and proper loading of the reservoir may be accurately ascertained. Additionally, the encoding may serve to uniquely identify a version of the reservoir which may be supplied in various versions corresponding, for example, to differing concentrations of a therapeutic agent to be dispensed.

Adjusting emulated encoder frequencies in an example embodiment can include determining a difference between an encoder count and a theoretical encoder count and adjusting a frequency of an emulated encoder signal to mitigate at least some of the difference between the encoder count and the theoretical encoder count.

An electronic position encoder comprises a scale including a periodic scale pattern along a measuring axis direction having a scale period Ps, and a detector portion comprising a first group of sensing elements, a second group of sensing elements, and a signal processing configuration. The second group of sensing elements is located at a group position which is equal to K2*Ps+PS/M relative to the first group of sensing elements along the measuring axis direction, where K2 and M are integers. The signal processing configuration independently acquires a first set of detector signals from the first group of sensing elements, and a second set of detector signals from the second group of sensing elements, and determines a relative position between the detector portion and the scale pattern based on the first set of detector signals and the second set of detector signals.

A method is provided for detecting a reciprocal position between a cylinder and a piston of a piston-cylinder unit of a vehicle. The method includes measuring, by means of an optical sensor, a value of an indicative parameter of a color of a reference mark positioned on a portion of the piston. The method also includes comparing the measured value with at least a predetermined threshold value thereof different to a minimum detected threshold of the indicative parameter by the optical sensor; and emitting an alarm signal perceptible by a driver of a vehicle if the measured value is comprised between the threshold value and the minimum value.

A length-measuring device for measuring a relative position of two objects includes a hollow section member in which a tensioned scale tape extends. A mounting block is disposed at each end of the scale tape. An adjuster is configured to position a mounting block on the hollow section member in a first installed condition such that the mounting block is displaceable in the longitudinal direction. The adjuster is movably mounted on the hollow section member and capable of being brought from a first to a second position. The mounting block is in the first installed condition when the adjuster is in the first position. The mounting block is movable to a second installed condition by moving the adjuster to the second position. In the second installed condition, the mounting block is fixed in a nominal position defined by the adjuster on the hollow section member.

A position detection encoder includes a scale that has a position detection pattern and a linear pattern that is formed in a direction parallel to a length direction of the position detection pattern; and a position detector generating a position detection signal with a different value due to a displacement of the position detection pattern in the length direction. In the position detector, a position confirmation pattern is formed that includes two markers arranged at an interval equal to or less than an offset tolerance value for a positional relationship of the position detector and the scale in a width direction of the position detection pattern.

A device for measuring length of an object, comprising a coilable tape having a plurality of machine-readable measurement codes on at least one surface, each of the plurality of machine-readable measurement codes encoding for a length value corresponding to a length, a scan engine having a reading zone through which the coilable tape can be extended, the scan engine being configured to detect a machine-readable measurement code positioned within a reading zone, a processor in communication with the scan engine, and an output means selected from one or more of a visual display, a wireless transmitter, a memory, and a remote device, wherein upon extending the coilable tape to a particular length, such that the machine-readable measurement code encoding for the corresponding length value is positioned within the reading zone, the scan engine detects the machine-readable measurement code, receives the corresponding length value and provides the corresponding length value to the processor, the processor processes the corresponding length value, and provides the processed length value to the output means.

A semiconductor device comprising a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arrayed on a substrate, a readout unit configured to read out signals from the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, and a light source unit driver configured to drive a light source unit, wherein the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements include a first element configured to receive incident light and a second element configured to be shielded from the incident light, and the light source unit driver drives the light source based on both a signal from the first element and a signal from the second element read out by the readout unit.

A position-measuring device for determining an absolute position includes a measuring scale and a scanning unit that is movable relative to the measuring scale along at least one measuring direction. To generate a scannable signal pattern, the measuring scale has a measuring graduation which includes a raster of stripe elements arranged along the measuring direction at a measuring-scale longitudinal period. For the encoding of an absolute position, the stripe elements have a periodic structure having a measuring-scale transverse period along a transverse direction that is oriented perpendicular to the measuring direction. For scanning the signal pattern, the scanning unit has a two-dimensional detector system having a plurality of detector elements, which includes multiple detector columns having a plurality of detector elements in each case. The detector columns are periodically arranged along the measuring direction and the detector elements are periodically arranged along the transverse direction, so that by scanning the signal pattern, at least three periodic partial incremental signals are able to be generated with regard to relative movements along the measuring direction, as well as at least one absolute-position signal per detector column.

A measurement apparatus includes: a light source that emits light; a scale that has a plurality of tracks whose patterns are different from each other, the tracks passing at least a part of lights emitted by the light source; a light receiving part that has a plurality of light receiving elements that each output an optical signal corresponding to strength of light received through the tracks; and a signal generation part that generates a serial signal in which a plurality of the optical signals are time-division multiplexed and sends the generated serial signal.