Patent ID: 6091792
Filing Date: 2000-07-18
Classification: G06M

Abstract:
A device for counting the number of corrugated articles in a stack of corrugated articles, each corrugated article having a top layer, a bottom layer, at least one middle layer therebetween forming spaces between the top and bottom layers, and an edge, the device comprising:(1) a light source for illuminating the edges of a plurality of corrugated articles in the stack of corrugated articles;(2) an image capturing means for capturing a visual image of the edges of the corrugated articles in the stack;(3) a signal converting means for converting the visual image into an electronic signal representative of the visual image; and(4) processing means for processing the electronic signal into article signals representative of the articles in the stack;(5) the processing means including a discriminator having a signal intensity threshold for differentiating between article signals having intensities above the threshold value representing layers and those below the threshold representing at least one space between the layers in the edge of each article to count the individual articles in the stack.