AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR RANDOMLY ORIENTED OBJECTS

• US 20110168774A1
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eliezer Magal
• Original Assignee: Eliezer Magal
• Inventors: Magal, Eliezer
• Granted Patent: US 8,636,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/90 Identification means for patients or instruments, e.g. tags
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisious for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/02 characterised by the selection of materials, e.g. to avoid wear during transport through the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/04 characterised by the shape
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/063 the carrier being marginally punched or notched, e.g. having elongated slots
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10 by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1099 scanning using X-rays

Abstract

A method of identifying a plurality of items, the method comprising: performing a CT scan of a plurality of items, at least some of said items bearing information tags; reconstructing an image based on the CT scan; and identifying an information tag associated with the items based on the reconstructed image.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a plurality of items, the method comprising:

performing a CT scan of a plurality of items, at least some of said items bearing information tags;

reconstructing an image based on the CT scan; and

identifying an information tag associated with the items based on the reconstructed image.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the tag comprises an identifiable material and wherein identifying the tag comprises identifying said material.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying an information tag comprises identifying a plurality of materials, where a tag may comprise different materials and where different tags may comprise different sets of materials.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying an information tag comprises identifying pieces of high attenuation material on or in the tags.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying an information tags comprises identifying a predefined geometrical shape of the tags.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein identifying an information tag comprises identifying a pattern on the tag.

7. A method according to claim 5 wherein identifying an information tag comprises identifying by a shape recognition algorithm.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying an information tag comprises identifying a combination of any of materials and geometrical shapes of the tag.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises reading information related to the item from the information tag.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein reading information comprises reading a pattern embedded in the tag.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein reading information comprises identifying bits embedded in the tags.

12. A method according to claim 9, wherein reading information comprises identifying grooves or holes in the tag.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein identifying grooves or holes comprises identifying a CT number of a material filling the grooves or holes.

14. A method according to claim 9, the method further comprising:

determining CT numbers associated with an item;

analyzing the shape and CT numbers of the item; and

comparing said shape and/or CT numbers with the information read from the tag.

15. A method according to claim 14, the method further comprising:

generating a warning when said comparison is negative.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying an information tag based on the reconstructed image comprises:

identifying a plane on which the information tag is positioned based on the reconstructed image;

reconstructing a 2-D image of the plane on which the tag is identified; and

identifying the tag based on the 2-D image.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein identifying an information tag based on the reconstructed image comprises reading information from the information tag from the 3D image.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein reading information from the information tag comprises analyzing only voxels in the image where information is expected to be located.

19. A method according to claim 1, wherein constructing an image based on the CT scan comprises constructing a first low resolution image of said items and constructing a second higher resolution image of the volume around the located tags.

20. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises providing an item holder containing said plurality of items.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein providing an item holder comprises providing an item holder containing a plurality of information tags associated with the plurality of items and wherein performing a CT scan of a plurality of items comprises performing a CT scan of the plurality of tags.

22. A method according to claim 21, wherein providing an item holder containing a plurality of information tags comprises providing an item holder containing a plurality of information tags wherein at least one of the tags is associated with an item that is not in the item holder.

23. A method according to claim 21, wherein providing an item holder containing a plurality of information tags comprises providing an item holder containing a plurality of information tags wherein at least one of the tags is not associated with a particular item.

24. A method according to claim 20, wherein providing an item holder comprises providing an item holder made of a low attenuation coefficient material.

25. A method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

generating information on the items associated with the tags.

26. A method according to claim 25, the method further comprising:

analyzing the outer surface of an item from the plurality of items; and

checking if information on said item is provided in the generated information.

27. A method according to claim 1, wherein constructing an image based on the CT scan and identifying an information tag, further comprises one or more of noise filtering, edge enhancement, segmentation of the image to sub volumes of different densities, pattern recognition, multi-planar reconstruction and curved multi-planar reconstruction.

28. A method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

detecting that the reconstructed image is noisy and

performing an additional CT scan of the items.

29. A method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

detecting that the signals detected by the CT scan are low; and

performing an additional CT scan of the items.

30. A method according to claim 28, wherein performing an additional scan comprises performing an additional scan with different scan parameters than the first CT scan.

31. A method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

calculating a volume of the items from the reconstructed image;

comparing said calculated volume with the expected volume based on information read from the information tags.

32. A method according to claim 31, wherein calculating a volume of the items comprises calculating a total volume of approximately a same CT number in the items.

33. A method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

generating a warning if any of the items generates image artifacts or if the tags might be tampered with.

54. A method according to claim 6 wherein identifying an information tag comprises identifying by a pattern recognition algorithm.

34. An information tag for providing information on items, the tag comprising:

a body made of one or more materials, said body comprising markings for orienting the tag in a 3D image and

coding item information,

wherein said coding is provided by incisions or holes in the body.

35. A tag according to claim 34, wherein said marking is an engraving in the body.

36. A tag according to claim 34, wherein said marking is an asymmetric shape of the body.

37. A tag according to claim 34, wherein said marking is a predefined material embedded in the tag.

38. A tag according to claim 34, wherein the one or more materials have a different radiation attenuation coefficient than the item which the tag is associated with.

39. A tag according to claim 34, wherein the body has a predefined geometrical shape, adapted to be identified in a CT image.

40. A tag according to claim 34, wherein the incisions or holes represent information of a bar code.

41. A tag according to claim 34, wherein the body comprises a template of holes and wherein the incision or holes are holes punched in said template.

42. A tag according to claim 34, wherein the incisions or holes comprise different shapes.

43. A tag according to claim 34, wherein the incisions or holes are filled with a different material than the one or more materials of the body.

44. A tag according to claim 34, wherein different holes are filled with different materials.

45. A system for identifying a plurality of items, the system comprising:

a CT scanner operable to scan a plurality of items, the items comprising one or more tags including information for said items;

an image reconstructor adapted to reconstruct an image of said items; and

a controller adapted to locate the tags within said image and read the information on the tags from said image.

46. A system according to claim 45, wherein the controller is further adapted to generate a warning when an item of the plurality of items interferes generates image artifacts.

47. A system according to claim 45, wherein the controller is further adapted to instruct rescanning of the items with different parameters when low signals are detected during the scan.

48. A system according to claim 45 wherein the controller is further adapted to instruct rescanning of the items with different parameters when the quality of the reconstructed image is insufficient for locating the tags.

49. A system according to claim 45, wherein the controller is further adapted to compare the volume of the items in the reconstructed image with an expected volume of the items as derived from the information on the tags.

50. A system according to claim 49, wherein the compared volume is a volume of approximately a same CT number in the reconstructed image.

51. A system according to claim 49 wherein the controller is further adapted to generate a warning when the expected volume of the different materials is different than the volume derived from the information on the tags.

52. A system according to claim 45, wherein the CT scan is operable to scan tags without their associated items.

53. A system according to claim 45, wherein the system further includes a scale for weighing the items and the controller is further adapted to compare the weight of the items with an expected weight of the items as derived from the information on the tags.

55. A system according to claim 45, wherein the controller is further adapted for:

determining CT numbers associated with an item;

analyzing the shape and CT numbers of the item; and

comparing said shape and/or CT numbers with the information read from the tag.