Patent ID: 6410872
Filing Date: 2002-06-25
Classification: B07C,G01N,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of sorting articles that are moved past an inspection zone, comprising:illuminating the articles in the inspection zone with visible and infrared radiation; sensing the visible and infrared radiation reflected from the articles in the inspection zone and generating visible and infrared image data; extracting feature data from the visible image data and assigning a first numerical value representing a feature of a discrete area from respective articles; extracting feature data from the infrared image data and assigning a second numerical value representing the feature of the discrete area of the respective articles; subtracting the first numerical value from the second numerical value to obtain a contrast value; rejecting the contrast value if less than a threshold value; classifying the contrast value into a class category if the contrast value is not less than the threshold value; and separating the articles into acceptable articles and unacceptable articles in response to the class category.