Patent GB-778288-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to the electronic counting of objects
Inventor: NUTTALL THOMAS CAYTON
IPC: G06M11/04
Filed: 1954-05-28
Abstract: 778,288. Counting particles photo-electrically. CINEMA-TELEVISION, Ltd. May 27, 1955 [May 28, 1954; May 28, 1954], Nos. 15847/54 and 15848/54. Class 40 (3). In order to count objects dispersed in a field of view, the latter is scanned to derive an electrical signal of which the amplitude varies as the scanning element encounters an object and which is fed to a device yielding signals of one kind for input signals of less than a predetermined amplitude and signals of another kind for input signals. greater than the predetermined amplitude, these output signals derived during the scanning of each line are stored and used for comparison with signals derived during the scanning of a contiguous line to yield output signals only when a selected one of the compared signals includes a transition in a predetermined sense from one to the other of said kinds, which transition is absent from the other of said signals, and the output signals are applied to a counter. As shown in Fig. 1, the flying spot of a C.R.T. 1 is imaged by lens 2 upon a slide carrying objects 4 to be counted and through which light passes to a photo-cell 6. The signal derived by the photo-cell is amplified at 7 and fed to an amplitude discriminator 8 giving an output only when the received signal exceeds a certain amplitude. One part of the output from 8 is applied to a storage device 9 having an output corresponding to the input signal but delayed by the time taken to scan one line of the field of view. The other part of the output is applied directly to a comparator device 11 which supplies an output signal to a counter 12 only when the direct input in any scanning line differs from the delayed input by a signal indicating the presence of an object. Fig. 3 indicates a circuit arrangement for comparing delayed and undelayed signals used with a television scanner 13 from which the signals are applied to an amplitude discriminator 16. This discriminator 16 is adjusted to give an output signal having one value corresponding to those portions of the input signal derived when an object is scanned and a second value corresponding to all other input signals. Part of the output is fed to a differentiating circuit 18 adapted to derive signals corresponding temporally to the scanning of the two edges of each object encountered in any one scanning line and having a brief duration T 1 . These signals are applied to a selector circuit 19 promoting an output only when it receives signals derived when the scanner passes off an object in each line, this output being applied to a gate 20, which is open or closed depending upon the signal received from a delay line. This delay line includes a storage device 17, which reproduces the signal from discriminator 16 after a time equal to the line repetition time of the scanner. The delayed output from 17 is mixed at 21 with the direct output from 16, the output from mixer 21 being fed to a bi-stable trigger circuit 22 adapted to provide a gate opening signal, after a time T 2  which is greater than T 1  and is determined by device 23, only when the signals applied to mixer 21 are of different amplitudes. This state of affairs occurs only when the scanning element passes off an object for the first time and thus it is ensured that each object is only counted once. If the field includes objects with re-entrant outlines, a correct count may be obtained by using the arrangement described in Specification 778,289. Specifications 733,562 and 744,470 also are referred to.