[ATM] Patent Application for an Automatic Telescope

[<atm@hudler.org>]

This is hilarious and a little interesting at the same time. 
Wonder what happens when the dumb user (this is what the invention is for)
sets up the scope and turns it on in the daytime to watch it work.

Patent Application:
An automatic telescope (10) capable of determining an orientation without
requiring input from a user or any external source. The telescope (10)
preferably includes a database (22) to store astronomical information, a
processor (24) to control a drive mechanism (18), a vision device (30) to
sense bright stars, and a motion sensor (32) to generate a motion signal.
When the vision device (30) is slewed from alignment with a first bright
star to a second bright star, the motion signal is preferably representative
of a measured angle between the first and second bright stars. This process
is preferably repeated for several bright stars to generate several measured
angles. The processor (24) can then use the measured angles to identify the
bright stars and determine the orientation of the telescope (10).

You'll have to unwrap the URL; or you can go to http://www.uspto.gov/ and
select Search; by 'Publication Number Search' and enter 20050225854

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=
1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050225854%22.PGNR.
&OS=DN/20050225854&RS=DN/20050225854


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