DEVICE FOR MEASURING DISTANCES USING AN OPTICAL ELEMENT OF LARGE CHROMATIC ABERRATION

The method serves for measuring the profile of a rough, reflecting surface as a function of the distance between each point of this profile and a polychromatic light source. This object is reached, e.g., by forming a flat light bundle from the light of this source and imagining it on the profile by means of a chromatic lens element. This leads to a light band of different colors, which indicate the profile contour. Analysis by means of a spectral-dispersive apparatus reconstructs the contour profile of the object.