Classification and sawing of wood shingles using machine vision

Abstract

A method of wood shingle classification and sawing using machine vision comprises the steps of taking an image of a wood slab in a wood block and identifying a defect in that slab; comparing an image of this defect to images of confirmed defects in a database of confirmed defects to find a match of the defect in these images. If a match is not found, sawing a shingle from the slab and classifying the shingle while making abstraction of the defect. In a second aspect, when images of two consecutive shingles are identical, a third and subsequent shingles can be sawn from a block without taking images thereof. In another aspect, the comparing of images is done by an artificial intelligence system that is trained on a database of images that are associable to the subjectivity of experienced shingle sawyers.

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