Patent ID: 7822259

Claim:
A method to identify an inner surface and an outer surface of a sample flake, comprising: obtaining the sample flake; obtaining a digital image of a first side of the sample flake; obtaining a digital image of a second side of the sample flake; mathematically comparing the digital image of the first side of the sample flake to a digital image of a reference flake inner surface; mathematically comparing the digital image of the second side of the sample flake to the digital image of the reference flake inner surface; mathematically comparing the digital image of the first side of the sample flake to a digital image of a reference flake outer surface; mathematically comparing the digital image of the second side of the sample flake to the digital image of the reference flake outer surface; and determining a inner surface and an outer surface of the sample flake from the steps of mathematically comparing the digital image of the first side of the sample flake to the digital image of the reference flake inner surface, mathematically comparing the digital image of the second side of the sample flake to the digital image of the reference flake inner surface, mathematically comparing the digital image of the first side of the sample flake to the digital image of the reference flake outer surface, mathematically comparing the digital image of the second side of the sample flake to the digital image of the reference flake surface outer surface by determining a greater similarity of one of the first side surface and the second side surface to one of the inner surface and the outer surface of the sample flake.