# US 2024/0201062 A1 · Method and apparatus for determining particle content in a fluid, computer readable medium

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2024/0201062 A1
- Document ID: US20240201062A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 18/530,814
- Filed: 2023-12-06
- Published: 2024-06-20
- Earliest claimed: 2022-12-14
- Applicants: Aktiebolaget SKF
- Inventors: Gang CHENG; Tao FENG; Jinshi CUI
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20240201062A1

## CPC

- G01N 15/0227: using imaging; using holography
- G06T 5/70: Denoising; Smoothing
- G06T 7/0002: {Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection}
- G06T 7/0008: {checking presence/absence}
- G06T 7/11: Region-based segmentation
- G06V 10/26: Segmentation of patterns in the image field; Cutting or merging of image elements to establish the pattern region, e.g. clustering-based techniques; Detection of occlusion
- G06V 10/30: Noise filtering
- G06V 10/758: {Involving statistics of pixels or of feature values, e.g. histogram matching}
- G06T 2207/10024: Color image
- G06T 2207/20076: Probabilistic image processing
- G06T 2207/20084: Artificial neural networks [ANN]
- G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q)
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING

## Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method for determining particle content in a fluid. The method includes acquiring an image of the fluid, determining a particle-related characteristic value in the image, and determining the particle content from the particle-related characteristic value. Furthermore, the present disclosure also relates to an apparatus and a computer readable medium for determining particle content in a fluid.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for determining particle content in a fluid, comprising:
acquiring an image of the fluid,
determining a particle-related characteristic value in the image, and
determining the particle content from the particle-related characteristic value.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the particle-related characteristic value comprises:
a statistical characteristic value of the values of the pixels in the image,
the number, density and total area of the particles,
a statistical characteristic value of the values of the pixels after removing the particles from the image, and
a statistical characteristic value of the values of the pixels after removing the particles from the image and removing noise of the image.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the statistical characteristic value of the values of the pixels in the image comprises:
a mean, a variance, a skewness, and a kurtosis of the values of the pixels in the image.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein determining the particle-related characteristic value in the image comprises:
preprocessing the image, wherein preprocessing the image comprises:
segmenting the image to obtain a preprocessed image with a predetermined size and a predetermined position,
normalizing the values of the pixels in the image,
removing noise of the image, and
converting the image into an image with a predetermined format.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined format comprises an RGB format and an HSV format.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein determining the particle content from the particle-related characteristic value comprises:
determining the particle content from the particle-related characteristic value based on a regression model,
wherein the regression model describes a relationship between the particle-related characteristic values and the particle content.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:
determining that further detection of the fluid is required in the event that the particle content is greater than a first threshold and less than a second threshold, wherein the first threshold is less than the second threshold,
determining that a replacement of the fluid is required in the event that the particle content is greater than the second threshold.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

A computer readable medium having a computer program product stored on the computer readable medium which can be directly loaded into a memory unit of a programmable computing unit, the computer program product having program code means for performing the method of claim 1 when the computer program product is implemented in the computing unit.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

A computer readable medium having a computer program product stored on the computer readable medium which can be directly loaded into a memory unit of a programmable computing unit, the computer program product having program code means for performing the method of claim 7 when the computer program product is implemented in the computing unit.

### Claim 10

An apparatus for determining particle content in a fluid, comprising:
an image acquisition unit for acquiring an image of the fluid;
a characteristic value determination unit for determining a particle-related characteristic value in the image; and
a particle content determination unit for determining the particle content from the particle-related characteristic value.