Bottle thread inspection system and method of operating the same

A system for inspecting bottles having a threaded section for thread defects as said bottles are moved along a production line without requiring handling or manipulation of said bottles during thread defect inspection, said system comprising:

• a plurality of video imaging sections disposed along said production line at spaced locations, each video imaging section being oriented with respect to said production line to take a video image of each bottle at a different circumferential region thereof as each bottle moves into the field of view of said video imaging section irrespective of the position of each said bottle within said field of view, each video image encompassing a general region of interest containing a different portion of the threaded section of each bottle;
• and
• processing means in communication with said video imaging section and receiving the video images taken thereby, said processing means processing in real-time each video image to:
• highlight pixels of each video image corresponding to defects in said threaded section and corresponding to a reference feature of said bottle;
• determine the location of said reference feature based on highlighted pixels;
• determine the position of the threaded section of said bottle within said general region of interest based on the location of said reference feature;
• segment a portion of said general region of interest, which encompasses said portion of said threaded section into at least one specific region of interest;
• and
• examine the pixels in said at least one specific region of interest to detect thread defects generally about the circumference of said bottle.

A system for inspecting bottles each having a threaded section for thread defects as said bottles are moved along a high speed production line without requiring handling or manipulation of said bottles during thread defect inspection, said system comprising:

• a plurality of video imaging sections disposed along said production line at spaced locations, each video imaging section being positioned with respect to said production line to take a video image of each bottle neck at a different circumferential region thereof as each bottle moves into the field of view of said video imaging section irrespective of the position of said bottle within said field of view, said video imaging sections being arranged in pairs oriented to reduce spacing and optical interference therebetween;
• and
• processing means in communication with said video imaging sections and receiving the video images taken thereby, said processing means processing each said video image to:
• highlight pixels corresponding to defects in said threaded section and corresponding to the top rim of said bottle;
• determine for each video image the location of said top rim based on highlighted pixels;
• determine the position of threads of said bottle neck within said general region of interest based on the location of said top rim;
• segment at least a portion of each video image, which encompasses said threads into a plurality of specific regions of interest based on the location of said top rim;
• and
• process each specific region of interest independently to determine defects in each of said specific regions of interest based on the existence of areas of white pixels larger than a prescribed threshold area size within said specific regions of interest.

A method for detecting thread defects in a bottle having threads about a neck of said bottle comprising the steps of:

• capturing video images of said bottle about the circumference of said neck to image said neck;
• processing pixels of each video image to highlight pixels corresponding to defects in said threads and corresponding to the top rim of said bottle;
• determining for each video image the location of said top rim based on highlighted pixels;
• determining the position of the threads of said bottle within said general region of interest based on the location of said top rim;
• segmenting at least a portion of each video image, which encompasses said threads into a plurality of specific regions of interest based on the location of said top rim;
• and
• video processing each specific region of interest independently to determine defects in each of said specific regions of interest based on the existence of areas of white pixels larger than a prescribed threshold area size within said specific regions of interest.

A system for detecting thread defects in a bottle having threads about a neck of said bottle, comprising:

• means for capturing video images of said bottle about the circumference of said neck;
• means for processing pixels of each video image to highlight pixels corresponding to defects in said threads and corresponding to the top rim of said bottle;
• means for determining for each video image the location of said top rim based on highlighted pixels;
• means for determining the position of the threads of said bottle neck within said general region of interest based on the location of said top rim;
• means for segmenting at least a portion of each video image into a plurality of specific regions of interest based on the location of said top rim;
• and
• means for video processing each specific region of interest independently to determine defects in each of said specific regions of interested based on the existence of white areas of white pixels larger than a prescribed threshold area size within said specific region of interest.

A method of inspecting bottles having a threaded section for thread defects as said bottles move along a high speed production line without requiring handling or manipulation of said bottles during thread defect inspection, said method comprising the steps of:

• capturing video images of each bottle with video cameras as each said bottle moves into the fields of view of said video cameras irrespective of the position of each said bottle within said fields of view, each video image encompassing a general region of interest containing a different portion of the threaded section of said bottle;
• determining for each video image, the location of a rim of said bottle within said video image;
• determining for each video image the position of said threaded section of said bottle within said general region of interest based on the location of the rim of said bottle;
• for each video image segmenting a portion of said general region of interest, which encompasses said portion of said threaded section into a plurality of specific regions of interest, said specific regions of interest including a central specific region of interest and other specific regions on opposite sides of said central specific region of interest, the position of said central specific region of interest being determined based on the location of said rim;
• and
• for each video image examining pixels of the video image in said specific regions of interest to detect thread defects generally about the circumference of said bottle.