Patent ID: 8483475
Filing Date: 2013-07-09
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. An inspection apparatus that inspects a package group including a plurality of discrete packages that are successively connected in a chain, each of the discrete packages including seal sites and a contents site surrounded by corresponding ones of the seal sites, the inspection apparatus comprising: an irradiating component configured and arranged to irradiate inspection waves to the package group, the inspection waves being X-rays or terahertz waves; a light receiving component configured and arranged to receive the inspection waves from the irradiating component and transmitted through the package group; a generating component configured and arranged to generate an inspection image on the basis of the inspection waves that the light receiving component has received; a region identifying component configured to identify a plurality of discrete package regions corresponding to the discrete packages from the inspection image, identify seal regions corresponding to the seal sites of the discrete packages from the inspection image, identify a plurality of content regions corresponding to contents in the discrete package regions and identify the discrete package regions from the seal regions of the inspection image; a weight estimating component configured to estimate one or more weight values respectively corresponding to one or more of the discrete package regions; and a weight diagnosing component configured to diagnose the package group as being abnormal in weight when any of the weight values falls outside a predetermined range.