Automated image quality control

A method of measuring the geometric distortion in test images processed by the plurality of functional components of an electronic digital imaging system, comprising the steps of:

• providing a two-dimensional reference object;
• acquiring a sample image from the reference object to produce a set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• locating a registration indicator in the set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• locating a specific region of interest in the set of pixel data representative of the reference object based on the location of the registration indicator;
• processing a subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest;
• measuring a selected feature within the subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest to produce a measured value;
• comparing the measured value against an expected performance value;
• and
• indicating if the measured value falls below the expected performance value to indicate a failure in one of the plurality of functional components.

A method of measuring the pixel value integrity in images processed by the functional components of an electronic digital imaging system, comprising the steps of:

• providing a reference object;
• acquiring a sample image from the reference object to produce a set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• locating a specific region of interest in the set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• processing a subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest;
• measuring a selected feature within the subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest to produce a measured value;
• comparing the measured value against an expected performance value;
• and
• indicating if the measured value fall below the expected performance value;
• and
• identifying streaks in the reference object, comprising the substep of performing a two-pass, two dimensional background estimate on the pixel data.

An automated image quality control system, comprising:

• a plurality of input modalities;
• a plurality of output modalities;
• an image storage memory;
• a processor connected to the image storage memory, the plurality of input modalities and the plurality of output modalities and having means for executing the following computer-executed program steps:
• storing metric thresholds for known good system components included in all modalities;
• acquiring a sample image from a reference object to produce a set of pixel data representative of a physical reference object;
• measuring selected attributes from the set of pixel data and producing therefrom a set of feature statistics;
• comparing the set of feature statistics against the metric thresholds;
• indicating if any one of the set of feature statistics fall below any one of the metric thresholds and
• indicating the failure of a specific system component which resulted in the any one of the set of feature statistics to fall below any one of the metric thresholds.

An automated image quality control system, comprising:

• storage means for storing metric thresholds for a plurality of known good system components;
• acquisition means for acquiring a sample image from a reference object having a plurality of reference features to produce a set of pixel data representative of the reference features of the reference object;
• measurement means for measuring selected attributes from the set of pixel data and producing therefrom a set of feature statistics;
• comparison means for comparing the set of feature statistics against the metric thresholds;
• and
• indicator means for automatical indicating a failure if any one of the set of feature statistics fall below any one of the metric thresholds and for indicating a one of the plurality of system components which caused the failure.

A method of measuring the geometric distortion in images processed by the functional components of an electronic digital imaging system, comprising the steps of:

• producing a reference object from a stored data set of reference features to measure the output functional component of the electronic digital imaging system.;
• acquiring a sample image from the reference object to produce a set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• locating a registration indicator in the set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• locating a specific region of interest in the set of pixel data representative of the reference object based on the location of the registration indicator;
• processing a subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest;
• performing a region-of-interest calculation on the pixel data within the subset of pixel data to produce a one-pixel width line;
• calculating a best fit line to the one-pixel width line;
• measuring the maximum deviation of the one-pixel width line from the best fit line as a measurement of the linear geometric performance of the functional components of the electronic digital imaging system to produce a measured value;
• comparing the measured value against an expected performance value;
• and
• indicating if the measured value falls below the expected value.

A method of measuring the pixel value integrity in images processed by the functional components of an electronic digital imaging system, comprising the steps of:

• providing a reference object;
• acquiring a sample image from the reference object to produce a set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• locating a specific region of interest in the set of pixel data representative of the reference object;
• processing a subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest;
• measuring a selected feature within the subset of the set of pixel data within the specific region of interest by performing a two-pass, two dimensional background estimate on the pixel data to identify streaks in the reference object and producing thereby a measured value;
• comparing the measured value against an expected performance value;
• and
• indicating if measured value falls below the expected performance value.