Patent ID: 6952265

Claim:
A device for characterizing a target coating containing unknown metallic flakes comprising: (i) means for positioning said device over said target coating; (ii) means for producing one or more beams of light at one or more preset intensities; (iii) means for imaging; (iv) means for directing said beams of light towards a target portion of said target coating; (v) means for directing a reflection of said target portion to a photosensitive surface located in said means for imaging to capture a target image of said portion; (vi) means for measuring characteristics of said metallic flakes in said target image at said preset intensity; (vii) means for correlating said characteristics of said unknown metallic flakes in said target image to stored characteristics of known metallic flakes at said preset intensity to identify one or more said known metal flakes that match said characteristics of said unknown metallic flakes; and (viii) means for displaying said identified one or more known metal flakes that match said characteristics of said unknown metallic flakes.