Philip Morris Inc.

Philip Morris USA Inc.

Other

Philip Morris Incoporated

Robert J Maher

Kenneth A Cox

Henry M Dante

William R Sweeney

Kristen M Totty

Charles N Harward

Richard M Waugh

A merchandising system having a power distribution device associated with a package support system, and a package having a sensory output such as an image display capable of using power, data and/or signals provided from the power distribution device to produce a desired output when the package is associated with the package support system. Packaging materials of the package form the coupling medium for contactless coupling such as capacitive coupling of a controlled signal provided to the package support system to a display on the package.

System for coupling package displays to remote power source

Images such as product images are identified as substantially similar to one or more reference images by finding pixels which have substantially the same value or values in all or substantially all of the reference images. Image erosion and/or dilation may be used in processing the reference image data to help identify pixels which can always be expected to have the same value in all acceptable images. The values associated with the corresponding pixels in a product image are combined and compared to an expected value. The values associated with pixels which correspond to regions not similar in substantially all of the reference images are combined to produce a discriminant function. The product image is identified as substantially similar to the reference image or images only if the combined values from the product image compare favorably with the expected value, and the dot product between the product image and the discriminant function is equal to a predetermined value.

Product appearance inspection methods and apparatus employing low

A product gauge is disclosed for use in the optical inspection of products. The product gauge can be produced from the image of a model of the product. The product gauge can also be electronically constructed on a video screen by a computer line-drawing program. The product gauge aids in the alignment and the processing of information by the optical inspecting means including aiding an operator in determining whether a product is acceptable. The product gauge can be used to quickly and accurately tailor a generalized product inspection apparatus to specific products and thus ease the change from inspecting one product to another product.

Product gauge methods and apparatus for use in the optical determination

Images such as product images are identified as substantially similar to one or more reference images by finding pixels which have substantially the same value or values in all or substantially all of the reference images. Image erosion and/or dilation may be used in processing the reference image data to help identify pixels which can always be expected to have the same value in all acceptable images. The values associated with the corresponding pixels in a product image are combined and compared to an expected value, and the dot product between the product image and the discriminant function is equal to a predetermined value. The values associated with pixels which correspond to regions not similar in substantially all of the reference images are combined to produce a discriminant function.

The appearance of a product is determined to be acceptable or unacceptable by computing a discriminant function or image from a plurality of two-dimensional images of products of the kind to be inspected. A two-dimensional image of the product is then formed and processed using the discriminant image to produce an output value which can be compared to a predetermined value used in computing the discriminant image. If the output value deviates from the predetermined value by more than a predetermined amount, the product has been found to have an unacceptable appearance.

Methods and apparatus for optically determining the acceptability of

The acceptability of the appearance of objects such as consumer products is determined by forming an initial discriminant function as a composite of a relatively small number of images which are known to be acceptable. This initial discriminant function is then used to gather statistical information about how a first relatively large number of images compares to the initial discriminant function. Thereafter, this statistical information is used to select or aid in the selection of acceptable images from a second relatively large number of images, and the images selected as acceptable are used to refine the discriminant function. The refined discriminant function is then used (e.g., during actual product inspection) to determine which objects have an acceptable appearance and which do not.

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Midlothian, VA, United States of America

Robert J Maher