Patent ID: 6610953
Filing Date: 2003-08-26
Classification: B07C,G01N

Abstract:
A method for detecting defects in objects or items, comprising the steps of:capturing images of the passing objects using two separate imaging devices, one near-infrared and one mid-infrared; removing the background information from the images of the objects; subjecting the object images to a spherical optical transform and a defect preservation transform to preserve any defect levels on objects and compensate for the non-lambertian gradient reflectants on spherical objects at their curvatures and dimensions; subtracting the processed images provided by said mid-infrared device from the processed images provided by said near-infrared device to produce an image of just defects; and, analyzing the defect image to produce separation or sorting control signals based upon defect rejection decisions and user parameters to separate objects with defects from those that do not contain defects or to sort or categorize objects based on the amount, type, size or character of the defects.