Patent Document ID: 4589141
Application ID: 06588484
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An automatic printed label inspecting apparatus comprising a computerized vision system for selectively inspecting labels and labeled articles and rejecting articles having labels not meeting preselected visual requirements, said apparatus including: (a) an inspection station means for positioning labeled articles; (b) a camera means positioned at the inspection station for breaking down the image of the label into small picture elements (pixels) and converting each pixel into electrical analog signals representative of the light intensity thereof (video signals); and (c) a pattern recognition circuit means operatively connected to the camera means for receiving and processing the electrical signals representative of the pixels for selectively rejecting the labeled article; said pattern recognition circuit means having a digitizing circuit means operatively connected to the camera means, a selector means operatively connected to the digitizing circuit means, a memory means operatively connected to the selector means, a spatial low pass filter means operatively connected to the selector means and memory means, and a data processing means operatively connected to the selector means and memory means, said digitizing circuit means operatively connected to the camera means for receiving and digitizing the analog video signals of the camera means into digital signals representative of a picture for a reference label and for subsequent labels to be inspected, the selector means operatively connected to the digitizing circuit means, memory means, spatial low pass filter means and data processing means for selectively inputting the digitized reference label picture and subsequent digitized inspection label pictures sequentially into the memory means for comparison and generation of a digitized difference picture for each character of the label by the data processing means for storage in the memory means, and for inputting the difference picture in arrays of preselected size into the spatial low pass filter for selective comparison, the low pass filter connected to the data processing means for inputting selectively good and bad signals to the data processing means for use by the data processing means in making a good/bad decision.