The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 13, 1982
Filed:
May. 14, 1980
Applicant:
Inventors:
William D Barber, Jonesville, NY (US);
Thomas M Cipolla, Ballston Lake, NY (US);
Joseph L Mundy, Schenectady, NY (US);
Assignee:
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06K / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
3401 / ; 235454 ; 250566 ; 3401 / ;
Abstract
High contrast image data is acquired from metal and other hard surfaces with varying roughness and reflectivity on which characters are impressed by vibrapeening or laser marking. The optical scanner applies normal illumination and a linear photodiode array detects light reflected normal to the surface and within a narrow acceptance angle, so that characters appear dark and the background light. The detector signal is preprocessed to remove nonuniform background variations and yield image data which can be fed to conventional character recognition equipment.