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:
Jun. 25, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 14, 1999
Duncan B. Campbell, Central Point, OR (US);
James Ewan, Los Altos, CA (US);
Cliff J. Leidecker, Rogue River, OR (US);
H. Parks Squyres, Medford, OR (US);
Hooshmand M. Kalayeh, Medford, OR (US);
Key Technology, Inc., Walla Walla, WA (US);
Abstract
A sorting system ( ) conveys articles, such as peaches ( ) on a conveyor belt ( ) past an inspection zone ( ) that is lighted by an illumination source ( ) radiating a number of emission peaks over visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. The illumination source generates the radiation from an Indium Iodide lamp ( ) that is reflected off a parabolic reflector ( ) and through a “soda straw” collimator ( ) to illuminated the peaches. A detector system ( ) employs line scanning visible and infrared cameras ( ) to sense visible and IR wavelength reflectance values for the peach meat ( ) and peach pit or pit fragments ( ). Various image processing and analysis methologies, such as subtraction, ratio, logarithmic, regression, combination, angle, distance, and shape may be employed to enhance the image contrast and classify the resulting data for sorting the peaches. Employing subtraction also cancels “glint” caused by specular reflections of the illumination source off the peaches and into the cameras.