PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15754645
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2018-09
Patent Classification: ["340", "684000"]

Abstract:
The seed counting sensor ( 200 ) for pneumatic seeding machines comprises a detection chamber ( 210 ) within a house ( 204 ), said detection chamber allowing the seeds to pass through the sensor and having a center axis ( 211 ) extending in the flow direction of the seeds ( 102 ); a plurality of light sources ( 240 ) arranged within the house ( 204 ), outside the detection chamber ( 210 ), at predetermined distances from each other, said light sources being in a plane (P) extending substantially perpendicularly to said center axis of the sensor; a plurality of light detectors ( 250 ) arranged within the house ( 204 ), outside the detection chamber ( 210 ) at predetermined distances from each other, said light detectors being in the same plane (P) as the light sources, wherein the number of the light detectors equals to the number of the light sources, and a signal processing unit ( 502 ) for controlling operation of the light sources ( 240 ) and for processing the electronic signals produced by the light detectors ( 250 ).

Claim (Index 6):
A method of detecting blockage of a seed conveying pipe of a seeding machine having a central processing unit, the method comprising the step of\n providing a seeding machine with a plurality of seed counting sensors according to  claim 1 , the method further comprising the following steps: during a seeding period, continuously measuring the electronic signal lengths of the seeds by means of said seed counting sensors, the seed signal length being defined as an electronic impulse the width of which is proportional to the time period during which a moving seed blocks the incident light of a light detector of a seed counting sensor, and at predetermined intervals the following steps are carried out: a) in each seed counting sensor, determining ( 1001 ) an average seed signal length for the given period by means of the signal processing unit of the seed counting sensor, b) forwarding said average seed signal lengths from the signal processing units of the seed counting sensors to the central processing unit of the seeding machine, c) at the central processing unit, determining ( 1002 ) the median of the average signal lengths over all of the seed counting sensors for the given period, thereby producing a common reference signal length for all seed counting sensors with respect to the given period, d) obtaining ( 1003 ) an upper limit signal length greater than the reference signal length by multiplying the reference signal length with a sensitivity factor having a value greater than 1, and for each seed counting sensor, the following steps are carried out at the central processing unit of the seeding machine:\n determining if the seed counting sensor is in a blocked state ( 1004 a ), and\n if the seed counting sensor is in a blocked state, then\n if the average signal length is greater than the previously stored upper limit signal length ( 1004 b ), the blocked state is maintained and the previously stored upper limit value will be used as the upper limit signal length in the given period ( 1005 ), \n otherwise the state of the seed counting sensor is changed to a non-blocked state ( 1006 ) and the currently determined upper limit signal length and its corresponding reference signal length is stored ( 1007 ), \n \n if the seed counting sensor is in a non-blocked state, then\n if the average signal length is greater than the currently obtained upper limit signal length ( 1004 c ), the state of the seed sensor is changed to blocked state ( 1005 ), \n otherwise the non-blocked state of the seed sensor is maintained ( 1006 ) and the currently determined upper limit signal length and its corresponding reference signal length is stored ( 1007 ).

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 9.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.74324
- Patent Class: 340.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['14424131', '14991210', '13046549', '15689318', '10567194']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6627832828963088
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4827252610885488
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6447774807155329
- Mean Citation Score: 165.238572
- Max Citation Score: 172.1179
- Similarity Product: 125.84228441969157

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test