Patent ID: 6539789
Filing Date: 2003-04-01
Classification: G01B,G01M,G06T

Abstract:
A device for the frictionless detection of a potentially existing essentially edge-free irregularity in a surface, the surface having a convexity, the surface having the irregularity, and the surface having a structuring, wherein the structuring is delimited by edges and does not constitute an irregularity, comprising:a unit for creating a three-dimensional representation of the surface, the three-dimensional representation of the surface having the convexity, the irregularity and the structuring; a unit for extracting, connected to the unit for creating, the unit for extracting being operative to extract the convexity from the three-dimensional representation of the surface created by the unit for creating and to smooth the edges of the structuring so as to obtain a representation of the surface, the representation of the surface not including the convexity of the surface, and including the irregularity and the structuring with smoothed edges; a unit for comparing, connected to the unit for extracting, the unit for comparing being operative to compare the representation with a threshold so as to identify regions of the representation which are determined by a predetermined relationship to the threshold value to obtain identified regions; and a unit for analyzing, connected to the unit for comparing, the unit for analyzing being operative to analyze area values of the identified regions, wherein a region is detected as the irregularity if the area value of the region exceeds a predetermined area value.