Patent ID: 7013245

Claim:
Apparatus for classifying a ferromagnetic object within a sensing area, comprising: a magnetic field sensor, said magnetic field sensor producing magnetic field data; a signal processing system operatively associated with said magnetic field sensor, said signal processing system comprising: a three-dimensional target position analyzer, said three-dimensional target position analyzer being responsive to said magnetic field data produced by said magnetic field sensor, said three-dimensional target position analyzer producing an output signal indicative of a location of the ferromagnetic object with respect to a host; a neural network responsive to said magnetic field data produced by said magnetic field sensor, said neural network comparing said magnetic field data with magnetic field data produced by known ferromagnetic objects to make a probabilistic determination as to the classification of the ferromagnetic object within the sensing area, said neural network also being operatively connected to said three-dimensional target position analyzer so that said neural network receives the output signal from said three-dimensional target position analyzer, and wherein said neural network uses the output signal from said three-dimensional target position analyzer in making the probabilistic determination of the classification of the ferromagnetic object within the sensing area; and a user interface operatively associated with said signal processing system, said user interface producing a user-discernable output indicative of the probabilistic determination of the classification of the ferromagnetic object within a sensing area, said user interface also being responsive to the output signal from said three-dimensional target position analyzer to produce a user-discernable output indicative of the location of the ferromagnetic object with respect to the host.