Patent ID: 8218912

Claim:
A method of detecting one or more errors in a series of electronically processed, multi-pixel images the pixels of which correspond from a series of images of a crop movement path of a crop harvesting machine, the method comprising the steps of: monitoring the reflectance of one or more of the corresponding pixels during sequential processing of each image of the series and, if the reflectance value of the pixel is invariant or substantially invariant in more than a predetermined number of consecutive images, creating a grayscale image representing the value of the variance of a pixel over the series of images; selecting a reflectance threshold value that is the lowest threshold value from a group of threshold values, the group of threshold values automatically generated as a function of the distribution of gray values in the grayscale image; thresholding the grayscale image so as to generate an invariant pixel image, representing the pixels, whose reflectance value is invariant or substantially invariant; inserting the invariant pixel image or an outline thereof into one of the images of the series in the location of the invariant pixel to create a modified image; allocating a logic level of 1 to each pixel in the modified image representing an invariant pixel image, wherein an invariant pixel image having a logic level of 1 must also be below the reflectance threshold value, and allocating a logic level of 0 to each remaining pixel in the modified image; and generating a command signal for controlling a sub system of the crop harvesting machine based on the allocation of logic levels in the modified image.