Method for identifying a diffusely-reflecting material
AssigneeBlack & Decker Inc.
InventorJohn N. Pike
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method is provided for identifying a diffusely-reflecting material, such as a textile fabric. A light source transmits radiation onto the unknown material, and a detector receives radiation diffusely reflected by the unknown material, and generates signals indicative of diffuse-reflection characteristics of the unknown material. A processor is coupled to the detector, and includes diffuse-reflection data on a plurality of reference materials. The processor compares the diffuse-reflection characteristics of the unknown material based on the signals of the detector to the reference data, and by a process of elimination, identifies the unknown material.
Claims6
A method for identifying an unknown diffusely-reflecting reference material, comprising the following steps:
- establishing a library of pattern values for a plurality of reference materials;
- determining the pattern values for the reference materials by generating a plurality of signals indicative of diffuse-reflection characteristics of the reference materials within a defined wavelength channel of finite bandwidth, and comparing the value of a signal of the respective channel to another value based on the average of the values of the signals of the two next-nearest neighbor channels;
- transmitting radiation from a light source onto the unknown material;
- receiving at least a portion of the radiation diffusely-reflected by the unknown material with a detector and generating signals indicative of diffuse-reflection characteristics of the unknown material within a defined wavelength channel of finite bandwidth;
- comparing the value of the signal of the respective channel to another value based on the average of the values of the signals of the two next-nearest neighbor channels to generate pattern values for the unknown material;
- and
- comparing the pattern values for the reference materials to corresponding pattern values for the unknown material to identify the unknown material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.