System and method for selective grayscale compression for defect images

A system, comprising:

• an input buffer portion to receive processed data corresponding to an image, said processed data including pixel intensity data;
• a pixel type analyzer to categorize pixels of an image as a background or an object pixel, said pixel type analyzer being connected to the input buffer portion;
• a run length encoding mechanism to encode a pixel intensity value of the image, said run length encoding mechanism comprising a background encoding portion to produce runs of background pixels, and an object encoding portion to produce separate runs of object pixels, the object encoding portion generates runs of pixels falling within respective ranges, each range being defined as a function of the intensity value of the first pixel of a given run;
• a maximum calculation mechanism to calculate a maximum run length for background pixel runs and a maximum run length for object pixel runs, said maximum calculation mechanism being connected to a max1 calculating portion to determine the maximum run length for background pixel rungs, and a max2 calculating portion to determine the maximum run length for object pixel runs;
• and
• a compressed buffer portion to store the background and object encoded pixel runs from said run length encoding mechanism in predetermined bit pattern.

A vision inspection system for compressing grayscale images of defects in manufactured products, the system comprising:

• a machine vision system coupled to a camera, the machine vision system including:
• a display that displays the image data;
• a processor coupled to the display via a bus;
• a memory buffer coupled to the display and the processor, via the bus, said memory buffer configured to store instruction data for said processor and compressed image data;
• a controller coupled to and controlling cooperation of the display, the processor, the memory buffer and the user interface, via the bus, wherein, under the direction of the controller, the processor fetches instructions form the memory buffer that direct the controller to receive processed pixel intensity data corresponding to an image, categorize the pixels of the image as background of object pixels, run-length encode the pixel intensity values of the image, said run-length encoding comprising background encoding to produce runs of background pixels, and object encoding to produce separate runs of object pixels, the object encoding comprising generating runs of pixels falling within respective ranges, each range being defined as a function of the intensity value of the first pixel of a given run, provide a maximum run-length for background pixel runs and a maximum run-length for object pixel runs, and store the background and object pixel runs as a compressed image at the memory buffer.