Patent ID: 11950743
Assignee: ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G  Y | IPC A  G

Claim 0:
1. A method for cleaning washware in a box-type dishwasher that has a treatment chamber which can be closed and in which washware can be treated in accordance with a predefined or predefinable treatment program, wherein the method comprises the following method steps:
i) a type of washware to be treated in the treatment chamber is automatically detected;
ii) a predefined or predefinable treatment program for treating the washware is automatically selected depending on the type of washware detected; and
iii) the process parameters associated with the selected treatment program are automatically adjusted,
wherein, in method step i), data in the form of a 2-dimensional image, relating to the washware to be treated is recorded and digitized with the aid of an optical identification system, and patterns are obtained from the data, which patterns serve to classify and/or detect the type of washware to be treated, wherein a reflection of light on the washware to be treated is used as at least one measure for detecting the type of washware to be treated;
wherein the data recorded in method step i) is a 2-dimensional color image, and wherein the color is used as a criterion for classifying and detecting the washware to be treated;
wherein method step i) comprises the following substeps:
a) the recorded 2-dimensional color image is preprocessed; and
b2) edge detection takes place on the preprocessed image for the purpose of object detection,

wherein the preprocessing in method substep a) comprises filtering;
wherein the recorded 2-dimensional color image is additionally stored as a grayscale value image in method substep a), and wherein, when at least one object is detected in method substep b2), method step i) further comprises the following substep:
c) a HSV (“hue, saturation, value”) histogram is formed for each object detected in the color image, and washware is categorized into types of washware, including into a porcelain type of washware and into a pots/pans type of washware, on the basis of said HSV histogram;

wherein, when no object is detected in method substep b2), method step i) further comprises the following substep:
d1) detecting whether there are reflections in the recorded 2-dimensional color image by a corresponding grayscale value histogram being generated on the basis of the stored grayscale value image, wherein, when corresponding reflections are detected in method substep d1), washware is categorized into a cutlery type of washware;

wherein, when no corresponding reflections are detected in method substep d1), method step i) further comprises the following substep:
e1) adopting an HOG (“histogram of oriented gradient”) method and determining HOG feature vectors for categorizing washware into a glass type of washware if corresponding HOG feature vectors can be determined.