Patent ID: 9575011
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: G01N,G06T,H04N

Claim:
1. An apparatus for acquiring a two-dimensional image of an external surface of a three-dimensional object, comprising: a conveyor for supporting and displacing the object along a path; a camera for capturing images of portions of the object surface; a friction member for rotating the object about an axes of rotation to expose successive portions of the object surface to the camera, wherein the camera is configured to capture images corresponding to the successive exposed portions of the object surface, and wherein the camera is configured to sequentially capture the images as respective single frames; and electronic control unit adapted, for each successive single frame, to: wherein the object is a capsule of the type used in pharmaceutical or healthcare applications, the conveyor includes at least one carrier provided with a housing configured to receive the object and a driving member adapted to move the carrier relative to the friction member, and the friction member is arranged to contact locally the external surface of the object when the object is placed in the housing of the carrier.