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. 18, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 21, 2011
Michael J. Lorello, Guilford, CT (US);
Gary S. Jacobson, Norwalk, CT (US);
George J. Doutney, Sandy Hook, CT (US);
Michael J. Lorello, Guilford, CT (US);
Gary S. Jacobson, Norwalk, CT (US);
George J. Doutney, Sandy Hook, CT (US);
Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
Circuitry to control reflective optical sensors is provided that reduces false detections due to ambient light without compromising the performance of the optical sensors to detect dark materials. A reflective optical sensor includes an emitter LED and photo-detector arranged to receive light from the LED that is reflected by an object being detected. A first input of a comparator is coupled to the output of the photo-detector. A second input of the comparator is coupled to the output of the photo-detector through a filtering circuit. The filtering circuit operates to filter the detector's output and adaptively adjust the trigger threshold of the comparator, thereby enabling the photo-detector to be sensitive enough to detect dark mail pieces, i.e., those mail pieces that are minimally reflective, while being immune to repeated false triggers due to excessive ambient light.