Abstract: The present invention relates to mitigating the effects of distortions in pulse shape and energy of spectrum from gamma ray and/or neutron detectors. In one embodiment, the present invention uses pattern recognition techniques to identify and separate various distortions in the pulse shape and energy to obtain a better estimate of the true number of pulses of specific energies which are characteristic of the radioactive materials present. Additionally, autoregressive models, pulse filtering and pattern recognition methods are used to obtain more accurate pulse characterization. In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of detecting a material comprising the steps of deriving an energy spectrum from nuclear radiation detected from the material, processing the energy spectrum for enhancing the energy spectrum, extracting one or more features from the enhanced energy spectrum, and classifying the material based on the one or more features.

Abstract: A system for inspecting ophthalmic lenses and including transport, illumination, imaging and image processing subsystems. The transport system moves a multitude of ophthalmic lenses along a predetermined path to move each of those lenses, one at a time, into a lens inspection position, and the illumination subsystem generates a series of light pulses and directs a respective one light pulse through each ophthalmic lens. The imaging subsystem generates a set of signals representing selected portions of the light pulses transmitted through the ophthalmic lenses, and the image processing subsystem receives those signals from the imaging subsystem and processes those signals according to a predetermined program to identify at least one condition of each of the lenses.

Abstract: Energy dispersive x-ray diffraction spectra are obtained from numerous volume elements within an object. A feature set such as a set of cepstrum coefficients is extracted from each spectrum and classified by a trained classifier such as a neural network to provide an indication of whether or not contraband such as explosives is present in the volume element. Indications for adjacent volume elements are evaluated in conjunction with one another, as by an erosion process, to suppress isolated indications and thereby suppress false alarms.

Abstract: A system for inspecting ophthalmic lenses and including transport, illumination, imaging and image processing subsystems. The transport system moves a multitude of ophthalmic lenses along a predetermined path to move each of those lenses, one at a time, into a lens inspection position, and the illumination subsystem generates a series of light pulses and directs a respective one light pulse through each ophthalmic lens. The imaging subsystem generates a set of signals representing selected portions of the light pulses transmitted through the ophthalmic lenses, and the image processing subsystem receives those signals from the imaging subsystem and processes those signals according to a predetermined program to identify at least one condition of each of the lenses.

Abstract: A system for inspecting ophthalmic lenses and including transport, illumination, imaging and image processing subsystems. The transport system moves a multitude of ophthalmic lenses along a predetermined path to move each of those lenses, one at a time, into a lens inspection position, and the illumination subsystem generates a series of light pulses and directs a respective one light pulse through each ophthalmic lens. The imaging subsystem generates a set of signals representing selected portions of the light pulses transmitted through the ophthalmic lenses, and the image processing subsystem receives those signals from the imaging subsystem and processes those signals according to a predetermined program to identify at least one condition of each of the lenses.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically inspecting an ophthalmic lens. The method includes the steps of directing a light beam through the lens and onto an array of pixels, and assigning to each pixel a data value representing the intensity of the light beam on the pixel. The data values are then processed according to a predetermined program to determine if the lens contains any one of a group of predetermined conditions.

Abstract: An image sensor comprised of an array of photo elements (pixels) includes a device for randomly addressing individual pixels and a device for selectively varying the number of pixels which can be read out on any one reading cycle. The random addressing of pixels enables the readout of pixels located in selected regions of interest. Limiting the readout of the images to areas of interest allows an increase in the frame rate of the images. Relatively large groups of pixels can be read out simultaneously and the resulting signals can be merged into superpixel signals to provide high speed data capture, albeit at relatively lower resolution, since there will be a reduced number of data samples in each image. This feature is useful to rapidly scan and analyze a scene being viewed in order to locate an area of interest. Once an area of interest is located, the number of pixels read out on each cycle may be reduced to provide a higher resolution, lower speed, readout of the area of interest.

Abstract: A robotic apparatus and method of acquiring jumbled objects or workpieces from a bin, and transferring them to a final site, or to an intermediate site for quality inspection. A video camera system produces a video signal representing a brightness image of the jumbled objects. An intermediate amplitude range of the video signal is selected, expanded, stored, and quantized into digital pixels. A computer enhances the image using histogram techniques, performs edge suppression, performs repeated shrinking with progressively-increased pixel thresholds until an area limit is reached, performs clustering of closely-spaced pixels, and commands movement of the robot gripper to a computed grip site on a recognized object. The gripper may limit its gripping pressure as a function of the deformation of the object gripped.

Abstract: A system for finding the position of a workpiece surface relative to a reference through non-contact gauging. The system uses a radiant energy beam projected such that an illuminated spot moves along the workpiece surface with movement of that surface relative to the reference along a measurement direction. An array-type image detector, which is out of physical contact with the workpiece, detects the illumination at each of a number of small areas of the workpiece surface and generates signals representative of the detected illumination. These signals are converted into a test signal which is a function of the difference in overall illumination between larger areas of the workpiece surface. A reference signal is produced and stored for two known positions of a workpiece surface. The test signal and the reference signal are combined with each other to produce a measurement signal indicative of the position of the workpiece surface relative to the reference.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system for inspecting and identifying workpieces in an industrial environment. Workpieces such as metal parts with markings that are punch-stamped or engraved are successively registered with a device which derives an electrical signal corresponding to each marking. The markings can be serial numbers or any other markings of arbitrary shape. Each electrical signal is extensively modified to minimize the effect of irrelevant and confusing characteristics such as the surface roughness of the workpiece, rust spots, depth of the stamping or engraving, and the like, and to make the electrical signal more representative of the important characteristics of the marking, such as the overall shape of the marking and the differences of the marking from other markings which have different meanings.