VISUAL INSPECTION APPARATUS AND VISUAL INSPECTION METHOD

• US 20100283847A1
• Filed: 10/01/2008
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Ochiai, Makoto, Satoh, Yoshinori, Yuguchi, Yasuhiro, Takabayashi, Junichi, Aikawa, Tetsuro, Oodake, Tatsuya, Adachi, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,976,242 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/142
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/8803 Visual inspection measuring projectors G01B9/08
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/8851 Scan or image signal processing specially adapted therefor, e.g. for scan signal adjustment, for detecting different kinds of defects, for compensating for structures, markings, edges G01N21/8806 and G01N21/93 - G01N21/95692 take precedence; optical measurement of dimensions G01B11/00; optical scanning G02B26/10; image transformation G06T3/00; computerised image enhancement G06T5/00; image processing per se for flaw detection G06T7/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4069 by subpixel displacements
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G21C 17/003 Remote inspection of vessels, e.g. pressure vessels
• CPC Class Codes: G21C 17/08 Structural combination of reactor core or moderator structure with viewing means, e.g. with television camera, periscope, window
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 7/02 Observation devices permitting vision but shielding the observer optical systems per se G02
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 30/30 Nuclear fission reactors

Abstract

The present invention includes a camera which takes an image of a camera or an inspection target; a device which estimates the movement of the inspection target; a device which generates a high resolution image having a higher resolution than the pixel resolution of a video image taken by the camera from the video image taken by the camera; a device which evaluates the quality of the high resolution image generated by the generation device; and a device which presents an inspector who visually inspects the inspection target with the high resolution image together with the quality evaluation result of the high resolution image. The present invention can improve the reliability of inspection by use of the high resolution image as well as can reduce the inspection time, and further can guarantee the reliability of the inspection using a high resolution image.

Claims

1. A visual inspection apparatus comprising:

an image input device which feeds a video image of an inspection target and outputs a digital data image;

an image selection device which selects an inspection image to be used for inspection based on a feature quantity of images outputted from the image input device;

a high resolution image creation device which generates a high resolution image having a higher resolution than the resolution of the inspection image from the inspection image; and

an image output device which displays the inspection image and the high resolution image.

2. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image selection device selects the inspection image to be used for inspection on the basis of a camera movement amount between continuous images.

3. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection device selects the inspection image to be used for inspection on the basis of a lighting change state between continuous images.

4. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a camera which takes an image of an inspection target and outputs the taken video image to the image input device.

5. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a supporting device which supports the camera and moves a position and an angle of the camera; and

an operating device which operates the camera and the supporting device.

6. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a control device which controls the camera and the operating device.

7. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

a position measurement device which measures the position of the camera,

wherein the output device calculates the position of the inspection target whose image is taken by the camera from the position of the camera measured by the position measurement device, the camera operation position of the operating device, and an angle of view of the camera, and measures a position history of the inspection targets whose high resolution images are generated by the high resolution image creation device.

8. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

an inspection object record device which records shape information of the inspection target; and

an image recognition device which compares and collates the shape information recorded in the inspection object record device and the output image outputted from the image input device and recognizes the inspection target in accordance with the output image,

wherein the image control device controls the camera and the operation device, so as to input the image of a feature quantity selected by the image selection device from the camera to the image input device, on the basis of the result outputted from the inspection object recognition device.

9. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image output device has an image memory which records any image of the inspection image and the high resolution image to be displayed.

10. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image quality improvement device which improves a quality of the inspection image selected by the image selection device; and

a monitor which displays an image outputted from the image quality improvement device.

11. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a first transmitting and receiving device which transmits the inspection image selected by the image selection device to a second transmitting and receiving device via a communication line; and

the second transmitting and receiving device which receives the inspection image selected by the image selection device and outputs the inspection image to the high resolution image creation device.

12. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image compression device which compresses the inspection image selected by the image selection device; and

an image decompression device which receives the image compressed image outputted from the image compression device, decompresses the compressed image, and outputs the decompressed image to the image output device.

13. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a first transmitting and receiving device which transmits the inspection image selected by the image selection device to a second transmitting and receiving device via a communication line;

the second transmitting and receiving device which receives the inspection image selected by the image selection device and outputs the inspection image to the high resolution image creation device;

a first sound input and output device which is provided on the first transmitting and receiving device side, and inputs and outputs sound; and

a second sound input and output device which is provided on the second transmitting and receiving device side, and inputs and outputs sound,

wherein the first sound input and output device inputs and outputs sound to and from the second sound input and output device connected via the first transmitting and receiving device, the communication line, and the second transmitting and receiving device.

14. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a date and hour record device which draws a date and time on the inspection image selected by the image selection device.

15. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image evaluation device which evaluates the quality of the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device.

16. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image evaluation device which evaluates the quality of the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device.

17. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the image evaluation device evaluates the quality of the high resolution image in such a manner that the image evaluation device sets a local range to each of the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device and the camera image obtained by performing digital processing on the video image taken by the camera, calculates the brightness dispersion of each of the local ranges, and compares between the brightness dispersion of the camera image and the brightness dispersion of the high resolution image.

18. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the image evaluation device evaluates the quality of the high resolution image in such a manner that the image evaluation device generates a converted image by inversely converting the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device to an image having the same resolution as resolution of the camera image obtained by performing digital processing on the video image taken by the camera and compares between the converted image and the camera image.

19. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the image evaluation device evaluates the quality of the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device at any of the timings:

each time the inspection target is inspected; and

before and after the inspection target is inspected.

20. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising a projection device which projects a light pattern onto the inspection target,

wherein the image evaluation device compares between the known size of the light pattern which the light projection device projects onto the inspection target and the size of the light pattern extracted from the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device to obtain a measurement accuracy and evaluates the quality of the high resolution image based on the measurement accuracy obtained by measurement from the high resolution image.

21. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising a test piece of a known size provided near the inspection target,

wherein the image evaluation device uses the test piece so as to compare between the known size of the test piece and a size obtained by measurement from the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device and evaluates the quality of the high resolution image based on the measurement accuracy obtained by a result of comparing the known size and the size obtained by measurement.

22. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising an execution determination device which determines whether or not the inspection of the inspection target is to be executed based on the evaluation result where the image evaluation device evaluates the quality of the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device.

23. A visual inspection apparatus comprising:

a camera which takes an image of an inspection target;

a movement estimation device which estimates the movement of the camera or the inspection target;

a high resolution creation device which generates a high resolution image, having a higher resolution than the pixel resolution of a video image taken by the camera, based on the video image taken by the camera;

an image evaluation device which evaluates the quality of the high resolution image generated by the high resolution image creation device; and

an image output device which presents an inspector who visually inspects the inspection target with the high resolution image together with the quality evaluation result of the high resolution image.

24. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the movement estimation device estimates a position of the movement of any one of the camera and the inspection target in such a manner that the estimation device obtains an old image and a new image from a plurality of camera images obtained by performing digital processing on each of a plurality of video images taken by the camera, and compares the enlarged images obtained by performing expansion processing on the images by block matching based on a brightness dispersion.

25. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the high resolution image creation device generates a high resolution image by combining a plurality of camera images obtained by performing digital processing on each of a plurality of video images taken by the camera based on any one of the movement estimated positions of the camera and the inspection target estimated by the movement estimation device.

26. The visual inspection apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the high resolution image creation device determines the pixel brightness of the high resolution image in such a manner that the high resolution image creation device calculates the pixel brightness of the high resolution image as an average value of pixel intensities of a plurality of camera images used to generate the high resolution image and adds the difference in pixel brightness of a central range including the pixels of the high resolution image and a peripheral range including the central range to the average value.

27. A visual inspection method comprising the steps of:

feeding an inspection video image and outputting a digital image as the inspection video image;

selecting an inspection image to be used for inspection based on a feature quantity of the output images;

generating a high resolution image having a higher resolution than the resolution of the inspection image; and

presenting an inspector who visually inspects the inspection target by displaying the inspection target on a monitor with the inspection image and the high resolution image.

28. The visual inspection method according to claim 27, further comprising the steps of:

evaluating the image quality of the high resolution image; and

presenting an inspector who visually inspects the inspection target by displaying the inspection target on the monitor with the quality evaluation results of the high resolution image together with the high resolution image.