US 5,964,844 AGranted

Method and apparatus for extensible command structure for machine vision system

AssigneeCognex Corporation

InventorSteven Rosenthal

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating a unified command structure for machine vision systems by defining a command class for each action capable of being executed in the machine vision system; establishing a data translator object for parameter data used by each command; associating each command class with an execution member corresponding to each action; associating a command class with a data member corresponding to the parameter data; and pre-instantiating a command object corresponding to the command class; at runtime, and upon receipt of a command identifier, the present invention locates the command object corresponding to the command identifier; associates the data translator object with actual parameter data; causes the object to establish the object's data members; and calls the object's execution member function to perform such actions as are indicated by its command class definition.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method for creating and interactively testing a unified command structure for machine vision systems, comprising:

a. defining a command class for each action capable of being executed in a vision processor;
b. establishing a plurality of data translator objects for parameter data in each of the plurality of formats used by each said action without the need to create two separate sets of command classes;
c. associating said command class with an execution member corresponding to each said action;
d. associating said command class with a data member corresponding to said parameter data;
e. pre-instantiating a command object corresponding to said command class;
f. upon receipt of a command identifier and its input stream data, locating said command object corresponding to said command identifier;
g. associating each of said data translator objects with input stream data in a particular format;
h. causing said data translator's object to establish said command object's data members;
i. calling said command object's execmtion member function to perform such actions as are indicated by its command class definition, thus permitting the insertion, execution, and interactive testing of new commands in a plurality of parameter data formats.

6 more elements

An apparatus for creating and interactively testing a unified command structure for machine vision systems, comprising:

a. means for defining a command class for each action capable of being executed in a vision processor;
b. means for establishing a plurality of data translator objects for parameter data in each of the plurality of formats used by each said action without the need to create two separate sets of command classes;
c. means for associating said command class with an execution member corresponding to catch said action;
d. means for associating said command class with a data member corresponding to said parameter data;
e. means for pre-instantiating a command object corresponding to said command class;
f. upon receipt of a command identifier and its input stream data, means for locating said command object corresponding to said command identifier;
g. means for associating each of said data translator object with input stream data in a particular format;
h. means for causing said data translator object to establish said command object's data members;
i. means for calling said command object's execution member function to perform such actions as are indicated by its command class definition, thus permitting the insertion, execution, and interactive testing of new commands in a plurality of parameter data formats.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.