Patent ID: 6934607

Claim:
A visual indexing system for assisting placement of an object upon a moving surface moving in a selected direction at a selected speed relative to a stationary reference, the visual indexing system comprising: (a) a visual image generator operable to project a first visual image upon the moving surface such that the first visual image is reproduced upon the moving surface in a first location to form a first reproduced visual image and in a second location to form a second reproduced visual image; (b) a controller operably connected to the visual image generator, the controller capable of controlling the location at which the visual image generator projects the first and second reproduced visual images upon the moving surface such that the first and second reproduced visual images move in substantially the selected direction and at substantially the selected speed of the moving surface, thereby resulting in substantially no relative movement between the first and second reproduced visual images and the moving surface; and (c) an optical sensor adapted to sense the object placed upon the moving surface and provide a sensed image of the object to a processor adapted to compare the sensed image relative to a model image of the object to determine any discrepancies between the sensed and model images, the processor coupled in signal communication with the controller and adapted to instruct the controller to adjust the location at which the visual image generator projects the second reproduced visual image upon the moving surface based upon a discrepancy found between the sensed and model images.