FOCUS INDICATION MECHANISM FOR BINOCULARS AND SIMILAR DEVICES

Abstract

An improved focusing mechanism that integrates magnetic measurement of a position sensor magnet on a focus adjustor wherein the focus position is based on capturing a focus mechanism's position with use of the position sensor magnet and 3D magnetometer and storing that captured position in memory thus allowing users to setup and save a focus mechanism's position facilitating the quick re-focusing on previously saved positions is disclosed.

Claims

1. An improved manual focusing mechanism comprising: a position sensor magnet; said position sensor magnet located on/in a sighting device's focus adjustor; a three-dimensional magnetometer creating a magnetic field; a memory; a set button; a notifying device; a user pressing said set button resulting in taking a measurement of the position of said position sensor magnet within said magnetic field of said three-dimensional magnetometer and saving said sighting device's focus adjustor's position, and thus the focus setting, in memory; and, wherein said user is notified by said notifying device once said sighting device's focus adjustor's position is set and saved to memory allowing said user to quickly re-focus to a previously saved focus position.

2. The improved manual focusing mechanism of claim 1 further wherein said notifying device is an optical notifier.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

[0007] FIG. 1 shows a graph showing how the focus mechanism's position is determined and saved.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0008] The disclosed invention is an improved focusing mechanism that integrates magnetic measurement of a position sensor magnet on a focus adjustor wherein the focus position is based on capturing a focus adjustor's position with use of a position sensor magnet and 3D magnetometer and storing that captured position in memory thus allowing users to setup and save a focus adjustor's position facilitating the quick re-focusing on previously saved positions. As shown in the graph of FIG. 1 the focus adjustor's position that is saved is based on measurement of the values of X and Z of the position sensor magnet on/in the focus adjustor in the magnetic field in relation to the 3D magnetometer.

[0009] The preferred embodiment of the focus indication mechanism comprises a position sensor magnet located on the focus adjuster of a binoculars or similar sighting device wherein the position sensor magnet is also located in the proximity of a 3D magnetometer having a memory and an optical set indicator.

[0010] When a user wants to capture one or more focus settings by using the preferred embodiment focus indication mechanism installed on his/her binoculars or similar device he/she would activate the focus indication mechanism, manually focus the binoculars on a target of interest using the focus adjustor, press a button to set that focus position by measuring the X and Y values of the position sensor magnet located on the focus adjustor in the magnetic field created by the 3D magnetometer, record those measured values in memory (thus recording the focus adjustor's position) and notify the user of the successful memorization of the values via use of the optical set indicator. This allows the user, after focusing on a new target, to re-focus to that set position for the first target by easily moving the focus adjustor back to the set position.

[0011] Since certain changes may be made in the above described focus indication mechanism without departing from the scope of the invention herein involved, it is intended that all matter contained in the description thereof or shown in the accompanying FIGURE shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.