Patent ID: 7304740

Claim:
A method for detecting blue stain in a wood sample, the method comprising the steps of: projecting a full spectrum light beam toward a first section of the wood sample; acquiring a first image of reflected light using a first line camera; measuring an intensity of reflected light in a red region of the full spectrum based on the first image; acquiring a second image of reflected light using a second line camera; measuring an intensity of reflected light in a green region of the full spectrum based on the second image; acquiring a third image of reflected light using a third line camera; measuring an intensity of reflected light in a blue region of the full spectrum based on the third image; subjecting the intensity measurements of reflected light in the red, green and blue regions to an algorithm to provide hue, saturation and intensity data; and detecting blue stain in the wood sample based on whether the hue data is within a pre-selected hue range.