Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works, Ltd.

Mitsuru Shirasawa

Tomoharu Nakahara

Shinji Hatazawa

Shozo Nomura

Oscar Vanegas

Toshinori Inoue

Tsuyoshi Masuda

Satoshi Yamatake

A method of inspecting granular material and an inspection device for conducting that method, wherein agents () to be inspected are imaged, the pixel value of each pixel of images thus picked up is digitized, a plurality of reference points are dispersed along the outlines of massive regions corresponding to the agents () in digital images, the numbers of other reference points that can be viewed through massive regions from individual reference points are counted, a reference point giving a minimum counted value is extracted as a base point, and the number of these base points is counted as the number of granular materials. Accordingly, the number of granular materials can be counted accurately even if a plurality of granular materials to be inspected overlap each other, are in contact with each other, or any agent having a groove in one surface is erected.

Method of inspecting granular material and inspection device for conducting that method

A programming apparatus supports a user to program a visual inspection program used in a visual inspection apparatus. A plurality of standard inspection flows corresponding to kinds of products to be inspected, a plurality of image processing algorithms and a plurality of inspection parameters used in the visual inspection of the product are previously memorized. The user prepares a plurality of image data of defective units and non-defective units of the product which he wishes to inspect, and programs a provisional visual inspection program configured by the standard inspection flow corresponding to the kind of the product which is selected by the user, the image processing algorithms and the inspection parameters selected by following a guidance of the standard inspection flow. The provisional visual inspection program is evaluated by using the sample image data whether it is proper or improper for inspecting the product.

Programming apparatus of a visual inspection program

An optical surface inspection method inspects a surface defect such as a crack, stain, and irregularity of an article, based upon an original grey value image of two dimensional configuration of the article and also upon an edge image representing a border line of the article surface. An area confined by the border line in the edge picture image is scanned for an edge which may be indicative of the defect. The pixel detected to have the edge is marked as a flag point. A plurality of pixels in the vicinity of the flag point are selected to be arranged in a direction generally perpendicular to the edge direction so that the selected pixels are evaluated in terms of their grey values whether there is a critical change between the selected pixels. When the critical change is acknowledged, the scanned edge is judged to be a clear transition between two contrasted regions and thus indicative of a defect.

Optical surface inspection method

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Osaka, Japan

Mitsuru Shirasawa