Patent ID: 6064429
Filing Date: 2000-05-16
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A detector for finding foreign objects lying on a work surface of a composite structure and providing warning, the detector comprising:a light source for illuminating the work surface with diffuse light;a video camera having a field of view, said video camera oriented such that the work surface is in the field of view for producing a color image of the work surface;a color image processing system, responsive to said video camera, for analyzing a predefined area of interest within the field of view of the video camera, said color image processing system comprising means for accepting a definition of the area of interest, said color image processing system also comprising means for discriminating a foreign object within the area of interest of the color image based on visual attributes of the foreign object including differences in the color of the foreign objects and the work surface, said color image processing system further comprising means for determining a location of the foreign object on the work surface; anda warning mechanism, responsive to said color image processing system, for alerting an operator when a foreign object is present on the work surface of the composite structure, said warning mechanism comprising an optical pointing device for illuminating at least a portion of the foreign object.