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.

Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 2009

Filed:

Dec. 21, 2004
Applicants:

Tong Xie, San Jose, CA (US);

Marshall Thomas Depue, San Jose, CA (US);

Inventors:

Tong Xie, San Jose, CA (US);

Marshall Thomas DePue, San Jose, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06K 9/00 (2006.01); G01N 21/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract

An apparatus classifies a material, which may include identifying the material, identifying the type of the material, or identifying the type of the material's surface. The apparatus includes a detector for capturing an image of a surface of the material, and a processor classifies the material by analyzing the image. When incorporated in a mechanism, this apparatus can classify the material on which the mechanism is operating, and, thus, the mechanism can tune some or all of its settings to the material without inconvenience to and with no susceptibility to error by a human operator. For example, when incorporated in a printer, this apparatus can identify the type of media being printed, and, thus, the printer can tune its print settings to the identified media type without relying on operator input.


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