Patent ID: 7528998

Claim:
A discrimination sensor for mounting on a machine for scanning a specific object, said specific object having a surface with a planar structure, said specific object having a scanned section, said discrimination sensor comprising: a plurality of optical devices having respective sensing widths and arranged to output respective electrical signals, wherein said scanned section has a plurality of scanned segments divided in a transverse direction and extending in a longitudinal direction, perpendicular to said transverse direction, said scanned segments having respective widths substantially equal to said respective sensing widths of said optical devices, said widths of said scanned segments collectively forming an overall width of said scanned section, said optical devices are disposed with a predetermined interval in said transverse direction to obtain optical information from said overall width of said scanned section when said specific object is scanned in a scanning direction perpendicular to said transverse direction, and said machine detects deviation of said planar structure from said surface of said specific object by determining whether said electrical signals output are within allowable margins of sample data stored in said machine.