Industrial system for inspecting and identifying workpieces

An industrial inspection method comprising the steps of:

• providing workpieces having identifying markings and defining an inspection position;
• registering the markings of successive workpieces and the inspection position with each other;
• optoelectrically detecting each marking registered with the inspection position to derive an electrical signal representing the marking;
• quantizing the electrical signal to derive a multicomponent, ternary level quantized signal in accordance with the presence and absence of selected transitions in the electrical signal rather than to the presence and absence of a selected level in the electrical signal;
• transforming the quantized signal by repeatedly combining components thereof with each other to derive selected components only of a transformed signal having a plurality of components each resulting from combining a multiplicity of components of the quantized signal, and forming said selected components of the transformed signal into an extracted signal representing selected features only of the marking;
• providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect the degree of correspondence between the extracted signal and each of a plurality of the prototype signals.

An industrial inspection method comprising the steps of:

• providing workpieces having markings and defining an inspection position;
• registering the markings of successive workpieces and the inspection position with each other;
• deriving an electrical signal representing each marking registered with the inspection position;
• locally smoothing selected components of the electrical signal as a function of other selected components of the signal to derive a smoothed electrical signal;
• quantizing the smoothed electrical signal to derive a ternary level quantized signal corresponding thereto;
• transforming the quantized signal by a selected multielement matrix transformation to derive selected components only of a transformed signal comprising components each representing an aspect of the entire marking rather than of a small area thereof;
• and forming said selected components of the transformed signal into an extracted signal representing selected features only of the marking;
• providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect correspondence therebetween.

A method of inspecting workpieces comprising the steps of:

• providing workpieces having markings at surfaces thereof formed by surface irregularities caused by displaced portions of said surfaces;
• providing an inspection position;
• registering the markings of successive workpieces and the inspection position with each other;
• detecting optoelectrically each marking registered with the inspection position to derive an electrical signal corresponding to the marking, said electrical signal including a component for each point of a multipoint array which overlaps the marking;
• locally smoothing the components of the electrical signal for selected points of the array in accordance with the components for selected adjacent points of the array to derive a smoothed electrical signal;
• quantizing the smoothed electrical signal to derive a ternary level quantized signal in accordance with defined transitions in the smoothed signal;
• transforming the quantized signal by a selected multielement matrix transformation to derive a transformed signal comprising components each representing an aspect of the entire marking rather than of a small area of the marking and extracting selected components only of the transformed signal to derive an extracted signal corresponding to selected features only of the marking;
• providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect correspondence therebetween.

A system for inspecting workpieces having markings comprising:

• means for detecting each marking of said workpieces to derive an electrical signal representing the marking and including a component for each point of a multipoint array which overlaps the marking;
• means for quantizing the electrical signal to derive a ternary level quantized signal which identifies each transition between selected levels in the electrical signal;
• means for transforming the quantized signal to derive selected components only of a multicomponent transformed signal, each of the transformed signal components being a combination of a selected multiplicity of components of the quantized signal, and means for forming said selected components of the transformed signal into an extracted signal representing selected features only of the marking, said selected features emphasizing lower resolution characteristics of the marking;
• means for providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• means for combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect correspondence therebetween.

An industrial inspection system comprising:

• means for providing workpieces having identifying markings;
• means for defining an inspection position;
• means for registering the markings of successive workpieces and the inspection position with each other;
• means for optoelectrically detecting each marking registered with the inspection position to derive an electrical signal representing the marking;
• means for quantizing the electrical signal to derive a multicomponent, ternary level quantized signal in accordance with the presence and absence of selected transitions in the electrical signal;
• means for transforming the quantized signal by repeatedly combining components thereof to derive selected components only of a transformed signal having a plurality of components each resulting from combining a multiplicity of components of the quantized signal, and means for forming said selected components of the transformed signal into an extracted signal representing selected features only of the marking;
• means for providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• means for combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect the degree of correspondence between the extracted signal and each of a plurality of prototype signals.

An industrial inspection system comprising:

• means for providing workpieces having markings;
• means for defining an inspection position;
• means for registering the markings of successive workpieces and the inspection position with each other;
• means for detecting each marking registered with the inspection position to derive an electrical signal representing the marking;
• means for locally smoothing selected components of the electrical signal as a function of other selected components of the signal to derive a smoothed electrical signal;
• means for quantizing the smoothed electrical signal to derive a ternary level quantized signal corresponding thereto;
• means for nonconformally transforming the quantized signal by a selected multielement matrix transformation to derive selected components only of a transformed signal comprising components each representing an aspect of the entire marking rather than of a small area thereof, and means for forming said selected components of the transformed signal into an extracted signal representing selected features only of the marking;
• means for providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• means for combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect correspondence therebetween.

An industrial inspection system comprising:

• means for providing workpieces having markings at surfaces thereof formed by surface irregularities of a material similar to the material forming said surfaces;
• means for registering the markings of successive workpieces and an inspection position with each other;
• means for detecting each marking registered with the inspection position to derive an electrical signal corresponding to the marking, said electrical signal including a component for each point of a multipoint array which overlaps the marking;
• means for locally smoothing the components of the electrical signal for at least selected points of the array in accordance with the components for selected adjacent points of the array to derive a smoothed electrical signal;
• means for quantizing the smoothed electrical signal to derive a ternary level quantized signal representing defined transitions in the smoothed signal;
• means for transforming the quantized signal by a selected multielement matrix transformation to derive a transformed signal comprising components each representing an aspect of the entire marking rather than of a small area of the marking;
• means for extracting selected components of the transformed signal to derive an extracted signal corresponding to selected features only of the marking;
• means for providing a plurality of prototype signals representing corresponding selected features of a plurality of prototype markings;
• and
• means for combining the extracted signal with the prototype signals to detect correspondence therebetween.