Back to results
US 12,008,746 B2Granted
Determining condition of conveyor belt by calculating apparent velocities from captured images of conveyor belt
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorJun Takada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inspection device includes an acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of images, captured from a given height, of an inspection object controlled to move at a constant velocity, a comparison unit that compares movements of the inspection object in the images on the basis of the plurality of images, and a determination unit that determines the condition of the inspection object on the basis of a comparison result.
Claims7
A system comprising:
- a conveyor belt that is configured to move at a constant velocity;
- a camera installed at a constant installation height above the conveyor belt and in a downwards-oriented direction towards the conveyor belt, the camera configured to capture a plurality of first images of the conveyor belt as the conveyor belt moves;
- at least one memory configured to store instructions;
- and
- at least one processor configured to execute instructions to:
- acquire, from the plurality of first images, a plurality of second images at successive acquisition clock times;
- on a basis of the plurality of second images, compare movement of the conveyor belt in the second images;
- and
- determine a condition of the conveyor belt on a basis of a comparison result, by:
- for each of a plurality of pairs of the second images, determining a number of pixels that a region has moved from one image of the pair to the other image of the pair;
- for each pair, determining an apparent moving amount according to the number of pixels that the region has moved;
- for each pair, calculating an apparent velocity by dividing the determined apparent moving amount by a difference between the acquisition clock times of the pair;
- and
- comparing the plurality of calculated apparent velocities for the plurality of pairs.
11 more elements
An inspection method comprising:
- installing a camera at a constant installation height above a conveyor belt and in a downwards-oriented direction towards the conveyor belt, the camera configured to capture a plurality of first images of the conveyor belt as the conveyor belt moves;
- acquiring, by a processor, from the plurality of first images, a plurality of second images at successive acquisition clock times;
- on a basis of the plurality of second images, comparing, by the processor, movement of the conveyor belt in the second images;
- and
- determining, by the processor, a condition of the conveyor belt on a basis of a comparison result, by:
- for each of a plurality of pairs of the second images, determining a number of pixels that a region has moved from one image of the pair to the other image of the pair;
- for each pair, determining an apparent moving amount according to the number of pixels that the region has moved;
- for each pair, calculating an apparent velocity by dividing the determined apparent moving amount by a difference between the acquisition clock times of the pair;
- and
- comparing the plurality of calculated apparent velocities for the plurality of pairs.
7 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program comprising instructions executable by a processor to:
- acquire, from a plurality of first images of a conveyor belt captured as the conveyor belt moves and by a camera installed at a constant installation height above the conveyor belt and in a downwards-oriented direction towards the conveyor belt, a plurality of second images at successive acquisition clock times;
- on a basis of the plurality of second images, compare movement of the conveyor belt in the second images;
- and
- determine a condition of the conveyor belt on a basis of a comparison result, by:
- for each of a plurality of pairs of the second images, determining a number of pixels that a region has moved from one image of the pair to the other image of the pair;
- for each pair, determining an apparent moving amount according to the number of pixels that the region has moved;
- for each pair, calculating an apparent velocity by dividing the determined apparent moving amount by a difference between the acquisition clock times of the pair;
- and
- comparing the plurality of calculated apparent velocities for the plurality of pairs.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.