The Human Eye: an intelligent optical sensor

Curriculum Vitae of Norbert Lauinger


Born in 1935 at Baden-Baden/Germany, he studied Industrial Psychology in 1953 – 1958 at the University of Freiburg/Germany (diploma, thesis in 1963 on Psychology of Perception). Married since 1958 with Yvonne Leitz, a daughter was born in 1962. In the years 1960-63 he was trained in optics, microscopy and optical measurement technologies at the optical firm E. LEITZ GmbH/Wetzlar and studied industrial management, optics and psychophysics at the University of Giessen/Germany.
In the years 1963 – 1972 he was part of the management team of the company E.LEITZ-FRANCE in Paris. He directed the Department of microscopy and industrial measurement with 50 employees and extended the activities to universities, hospitals and research centers of the French ex-colonies in Western Africa and to cooperation with other European firms in scientific equipment (mass spectrometers, ultrasonic devices etc). Back at Wetzlar he initiated the industrial marketing research Department at E.LEITZ Wetzlar. In 1975 the company E.LEITZ/Wetzlar was taken over by the Schmidtheiny brothers at WILD/Heerbruck and completely restructured.
In 1975 N. Lauinger started a freelance industrial consultant activity with residence in Wetzlar and activities all over Germany. In a cooperation with the Institut für Personalführung Dr. H. Müller/Köln (Management-Training and Assessment-Center-Development) he consulted many german industrial firms, high administrations and technological enterprises up to 1993. Since 1978 he additionally started research activities about grating-optical correlators in technical applications and in human vision in his own Institut für Optosensorik at Wetzlar.
In 1993 he founded the start-up company CORRSYS at Wetzlar together with 3 engineers specialized on optics, mechanics, electronics and software development in the optical sensor business. In 2000 CORRSYS after excellent high-tech innovations for Daimler-Chrysler took over the DATRON-Messtechnik Cie at Wetzlar, the main competitor in this field, and became the worldwide leader in the contactless slipfree optical correlator business in automotive applications of vehicle dynamics. More than 50 high-tech employees were working at CORRSYS-DATRON Sensorsysteme GmbH (www.corrsys-datron.com) under the general manager and major shareholder N. Lauinger up to 2009, and received some patents and prices (Hidden Champion Price of Hessen, TOP 100 of Germany’s innovators etc.). In 2009 the company KISTLER/Winterthur in Switzerland (www.kistler.com) took over the CORRSYS-DATRON Cie and integrated it into his Vehicle Department.
In 2005 the CORRSYS 3D Sensors AG was outsourced and specialized on the development of correlator-optical rail sensors under the management of N. Lauinger (shareholder of 70%). Up to 2010 innovative sensors for rail applications were successful in the test-fields and this business together with 8 high-tech engineers of the company was taken over by HaslerRail/Bern in Switzerland (www.haslerrail.com). Kistler as well as HaslerRail continued these activities of the CORRSYS-firms at Wetzlar.
In the years 2006 – 2012 N. Lauinger was scientific coordinator of the German Goverment project NAMIROS (Nano- and Micro- space gratings for optical sensors) with the partners Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymers IAP/Golm, the Institute for Thin-film Sensors IDM in Golm, the Optical Institute of the University of Berlin, the Department of Physics at the University of Siegen, the company VITRONIC/Wiesbaden and the company mrt at Berlin.
In 2014 his book was edited by IFSA/Toronto (Canada), entitled “The Human Eye: an intelligent optical sensor (The inverted human retina: a diffractive-optical correlator”. For other publications see publication list.
N. Lauinger is member of DGaO (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Angewandte Optik) and EOS (European Optical Society). For many years he was also member of SPIE, for a few years also member of AOS (American Optical Society).

Contact

www.lauinger-web.de; norbert@lauinger-web.de