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:
Aug. 19, 2014
Filed:
Feb. 24, 2011
Arthur G. Doak, Nashville, TN (US);
Arthur G. Doak, Nashville, TN (US);
MSS, Inc., Nashville, TN (US);
Abstract
A system is provided for identifying at least one physical characteristic of items in a stream of items moving along a path through an inspection zone, and for separating items from the stream of items based upon the at least one physical characteristic. The system includes a movable transversely scanning mirror arranged to reflect electromagnetic energy from the inspection zone onto an array of detectors. The detectors of the array are arranged to sequentially receive electromagnetic energy so that on each transverse scan of the mirror for any given sub-zone within the inspection zone the detectors of the array receive electromagnetic energy reflected from the mirror at different times. The controller is then operable to correlate input signals from the various detectors corresponding to detected levels of electromagnetic energy received at different times from each given sub-zone within the inspection zone.