Patent attributes
A rangefinder includes: a lens system (3) including multiple lenses (3a, 3b) arranged so that their optical axes are parallel to each other and integrated together; an imager (4) having image capturing areas (4a, 4b) that face the lenses (3a, 3b) and transforming light incident on the image capturing areas into an electrical signal; a transparent plate (6) arranged between the imager and the lens system and having substantially the same thermal expansion coefficient as the lenses (3a, 3b); markers (11a, 11b) provided on the transparent plate for the lenses (3a, 3b) and each casting its shadow on an associated image capturing area (4a, 4b); a signal receiving section (21) receiving the electrical signal from the imager; and an image processing section (22) correcting the positions of the optical axes of the lenses by reference to information about the locations of the markers (11a, 11b) on the respective images, thereby determining the distance to an object by performing a triangulation based on the corrected positions of the optical axes.
