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:
Nov. 28, 2006
Filed:
Jul. 10, 2002
Yupeng Zhang, Knoxville, TN (US);
Christopher K. Shofner, Knoxville, TN (US);
Frederick M. Shofner, Knoxville, TN (US);
Yupeng Zhang, Knoxville, TN (US);
Christopher K. Shofner, Knoxville, TN (US);
Frederick M. Shofner, Knoxville, TN (US);
Shofner Engineering Associates, Inc., Knoxville, TN (US);
Abstract
Method of grading a sample. An input color image of the sample, such as a sample of raw cotton, is obtained by a scanning technique. This image is first analyzed by an image segmentation module and a binary image where pixels of a first characteristic are marked as 0 (e.g. cotton lint) and non-lint pixels are marked as 1. In a following particle recognition module, the adjacent non-lint pixels are grouped together as particles, and the color, size, shape and edge strength for each particle are computed. The particle descriptions are analyzed and each particle is assigned a trash type, i.e. leaf, bark, grass, pepper trash or shadow. The data of leaf and pepper trash are analyzed by a leaf grading module and leaf grade is reported. The data of bark/grass are analyzed by a bark/grass grading module and the bark/grass grade is reported.