Waste separation device
AssigneeFiliGrade B.V.
InventorJohannes Bernardus Kerver
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A waste separation devices includes a source of radiation for irradiating waste, a camera for capturing an image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation, where an item in the waste is provided with a pattern in or on a surface of the item, the pattern forming a repetition of dots, a code being stored in a sequence of adjacent ones of the dots, a data processing device for processing the image to detect the pattern and for deriving the code from the sequence of adjacent ones of the dots of the pattern, and a separator for separating in accordance with the code the item the pattern from the waste. The pattern may be a relief pattern. The relief pattern may comprise a pattern of bumps and recesses. The pattern, such as in a form of a relief, may also be applied to identify the item.
Claims29
A waste separation device comprising:
- a source of radiation configured to irradiate the waste;
- a camera configured and arranged to capture an image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation;
- wherein an item in the waste is provided with a pattern, the pattern being provided in or on a surface of the item, the pattern forming a repetition of dots, a waste separation code being stored in a sequence of adjacent ones of the dots,
- wherein the source of radiation is arranged to provide irradiation on at least part of the surface of the item,
- wherein each dot forms a bump or recess of the surface of the item, wherein, seen along a direction of irradiation, the dots form leading and trailing edges of the surface of the item, and wherein the irradiation on at least part of the surface of the item forming by the dots an image of highlights at the leading edges and shades at the trailing edges on the surface of the item, and wherein the camera is configured to capture the image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation by capturing the image of highlights at the leading edges and shades at the trailing edges,
- wherein the device further comprises a data processing device connected to the camera for receiving the image of the waste item, the data processing device being configured to:
- process the image to detect the pattern;
- derive the waste separation code from the sequence of adjacent ones of the dots of the pattern, wherein the captured image of highlights and shades provides an image of leading and trailing edges wherein the highlights represent the leading edges and the shades represent the trailing edges, and wherein the data processing device is configured to derive the waste separation code from the leading edges and/or the trailing edges in the image of leading and trailing edges;
- and
- wherein the device further comprises:
- a separator, connected to the data processing device and configured to separate in accordance with the waste separation code the item comprising the pattern from the waste.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.