Apparatus and method for inspecting transparent cylindrical containers containing milky products, in particular for medical applications

Apparatus for inspecting transparent cylindrical containers containing milky products, in particular for medical applications, comprising:

• a support and/or gripping device for a cylindrical container, suitable to support it and provided with means for making it rotate about a vertical rotation axis, coincident with an axis of cylindrical axial-symmetry of said cylindrical container,
• a video camera directed so as to frame and capture images, in the form of pixels, of a window of a side wall of the cylindrical container,
• a first collimated lighting device, directed so as to illuminate said window,
• a second lighting device, collimated and oriented so as to illuminate said window, placed opposite the first lighting device, in a symmetrical position with respect to the window,
• a control unit operatively connected to the support and/or gripping device, the video camera and to said first and second lighting devices, and programmed to:
• capture first and second partial images of said window at constant angular intervals, alternatively activating the first and second lighting devices, for each angular interval, until a complete rotation of 360° of the cylindrical container is performed,
• associate, without interruption, the first and second partial images obtained by alternatively activating the first lighting device, so as to obtain a first aggregate image of the cylindrical container, and of the second lighting device, so as to obtain a second aggregate image of the cylindrical container,
• identify, within each aggregate image, the presence of possible irregular pixels having chromatic differences corresponding to contaminants,
• realize, in case of identification of at least one of said irregular pixels, a control image derived from the difference between said first and second aggregate images and catalogue, according to said control image, the position of the contaminant with respect to the side wall of the cylindrical container.