Patent ID: 7551768

Claim:
An image recognition apparatus in which an image obtained by picking up an image of an object to be recognized that includes a background surface, a first surface with a glossiness and a second surface with a glossiness lower than that of the first surface in a recognition surface, the first surface being partitioned by a rectangular boundary and the second surface being provided on the first surface in the background surface, is subjected to a recognition process to discriminate the first surface from the second surface in the background surface, said image recognition apparatus comprising: an illuminating part for applying illumination light to the object to be recognized upon picking up the image; a camera for receiving the reflected light of the illumination light from an upper part to pick up the color image of the object to be recognized; and a recognizing process part for recognizing image data obtained by the camera and discriminating the first surface from the second surface based on a luminance difference between the first surface and the second surface in said image, wherein the illuminating part includes a first illuminating unit for applying white illumination light to the object to be recognized from a first light applying direction in which regularly reflected light from the first surface is not received by the camera and a second illuminating unit for applying colored illumination light to the object to be recognized from a second light applying direction in which the reflected light from the first surface is received by the camera, wherein an angle, that occurs in a vertical plane, and that is formed by the first light applying direction with both of the first surface and the background surface, is not greater than 45 degrees, and an angle, that occurs in a horizontal plane, and that is formed by the first light applying direction and the boundary, is not greater than 75 degrees, and wherein an angle, that occurs in a vertical plane, and that is formed by the second light applying direction with both of the first surface and the background surface, is not greater than 45 degrees.