Patent ID: 8842183

Claim:
An inventory control system for determining an inventory condition of objects stored in the system, the system comprising: at least one storage drawer, each storage drawer including a plurality of storage locations for storing objects, wherein each drawer is associated with an identifier that is separate from the stored objects and has known color attributes, wherein the identifier is associated with one of the storage locations and has different known color attributes depending on whether one of the objects is in the storage location; a data storage system storing, for each storage drawer, information of the known color attributes of the associated identifier; and a data processor configured to: access data of a captured image of one of the storage drawers along with the associated identifier; access information of the known color attributes of the identifier associated with the drawer corresponding to the captured image; determine color attributes of the identifier in the captured image; determine a correction factor based on the color attributes of the identifier in the captured image and the known color attributes of the identifier; apply the correction factor to subsequent images captured by an image sensing device; and determine an inventory condition of the one of the objects associated with the one storage location based on a subsequent image captured by the image sensing device and having the correction factor applied thereto.