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:
Aug. 02, 1994
Filed:
Jun. 16, 1992
Anthony Vannelli, Walla Walla, WA (US);
Thomas C Madsen, Walla Walla, WA (US);
Key Technology, Inc., Walla Walla, WA (US);
Abstract
Described herein is an automated quality inspection station for evaluating color component characteristics of a product. The inspection station includes a color video camera, for capturing video frames of product images, and a control system for analyzing those video frames. The control system is programmed to perform a reference calibration and then a sample calibration. During the reference calibration an operator identifies component type areas from a displayed reference frame of a typical product assortment. The control system calculates color value density curves from the identified areas. The density curves are then calibrated to each other by scaling each of the density curves by a scaling factor. The scaling factors can either be provided directly by the operator or default values can be calculated by the control system. Default scaling factor values are calculated by summing the product of the corresponding density curve and an overall histogram of a sample video frame over a range of color values. Individual pixels are classified as one of a plurality of component types according to the highest calibrated density curve at the pixels' color value.