Patent ID: 8452072

Claim:
A method for inspecting a shape of a tire, using an image processing unit, a Fourier-transformed image creating unit, a knurled component removing unit, a tire shape image forming unit, and a tire shape detection unit, the method comprising: sampling an image of a tire side surface having a knurled region using the image processing unit; Fourier-transforming the image of the tire side surface using the Fourier-transformed image creating unit; removing a Fourier component along the tire circumferential direction and a Fourier component along the tire axial direction in the Fourier-transformed image as those corresponding to the knurled region when the two Fourier components are on a single straight line and at the same time appear discretely in a predetermined shape at predefined frequency intervals on the straight line using the knurl component removing unit; obtaining an image of a tire side surface with the knurled region removed by inverse-Fourier-transforming the image from which the Fourier components corresponding to the knurled region have been removed using the tire shape image forming unit; and determining the acceptability of the shape of the tire by comparing the image with the knurled region removed against a reference image of a tire side surface using the tire shape detection unit.