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:
Sep. 29, 1998
Filed:
May. 31, 1996
George J Vachtsevanos, Marietta, GA (US);
Muid Mufti, Atlanta, GA (US);
J Lewis Dorrity, Marietta, GA (US);
Other;
Abstract
The Invention includes a method and apparatus which analyzes an image of an object to detect and identify defects in the object. The present invention utilizes a scanning technique which converts a 2-D image of the object into a 1-D image, a transformation technique which extracts relevant features from the image, and a fuzzy inferencing technique which utilizes the features generated by the transformation technique to detect and identify defects. The present invention preferably includes an off-line learning process which selects the optimum transform coefficients for a given set of defects and stores the corresponding features in a rulebase. Preferably, the wavelet transform is used as the transformation technique to provide an analysis of the image which is localized in the frequency and time domains. The present invention may also include an on-line learning process when the present invention is incorporated into a manufacturing process for real time inspection of the object being manufactured. The on-line learning process attempts to nullify the effects of noise which may be associated with the image sensors being used to read the image by using a similarity function to maintain a predetermined level of fuzziness of the inference engine of the present invention.