IMAGE INSPECTING APPARATUS AND IMAGE INSPECTING PROGRAM

• US 20150221077A1
• Filed: 07/23/2014
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prosper Creative Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Prosper Creative Company Limited
• Inventors: KAWABATA, Hideki, KIJIMA, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,737 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/95615 with stored comparision signal
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20021 Dividing image into blocks, subimages or windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20224 Image subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30144 Printing quality
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30168 Image quality inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30176 Document
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/001 using an image reference approach
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/30 Determination of transform parameters for the alignment of images, i.e. image registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/337 involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/418 Document matching, e.g. of document images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00015 Reproducing apparatus

Abstract

Image inspecting apparatus compares first image data created as data representing a reference-image acting as an inspecting reference with second image data created as data representing an inspection-image acting as a target to automatically extract a difference point between first and second image data, and includes a storage means for the reference- and inspection-image, an image processing means for establishing correspondences between part of stored reference-image as first image data with part of stored target image as second image data at a pixel level to perform an image matching processing of them, a difference detecting means for comparing image-matched first and second image data to detect a difference between first and second image data, image producing means for comparing difference with a plurality of threshold values to produce error representing image data at each threshold value, and inspecting process using produced error representing image data at each threshold value.

Claims

1. An image inspecting apparatus for comparing first image data created as data representing a reference-image acting as an inspecting reference with second image data created as data representing an inspection-image acting as a target to automatically extract a difference point between the first image data and the second image data, comprising:

a storage means for storing the reference-image and the inspection-image;

an image processing means for establishing correspondences between at least a part of the stored reference-image as the first image data with at least a part of the stored target image as the second image data at a pixel level to perform an image matching processing of them;

a difference detecting means for comparing the image-matched first and second image data to detect a difference between the first and second image data; and

an image inspecting means for producing different point representing image data using threshold values, which differ at each partial region, to the detected difference to thereby perform an image inspecting process.

2. The image inspecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein regarding color tunes of the first and second image data, the difference detecting means converts CIEXYZ image or RGB image into L*a*b* values and thereafter converts L*a*b* values into color differences Δ

E or CMYK.

3. The image inspecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image inspecting process is performed based on an inspecting operation information sheet including the reference-image and the inspection-image, the inspecting operation information sheet adds job direction commands to the first image data and the second image data, the storage means stores the job direction commands together with the reference-image and the inspection-image, and the image processing means, the difference detecting means, image producing means, and the image inspecting means perform each process respectively, based on the job direction commands.

4. The image inspecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image inspecting process is performed based on an inspecting operation information sheet including the reference-image and the inspection-image, the inspecting operation information sheet adds job direction commands to the first image data and the second image data, the storage means stores the job direction commands together with the reference-image and the inspection-image, and the image inspecting means includes an image correction directive means for automatically correcting or manually correcting difference point representing portions of the inspection-image relative to the reference image displayed by the difference point representing image data based on the job direction commands.

5. The image inspecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image inspecting process is performed based on an inspecting operation information sheet including the reference-image and the inspection-image, the inspecting operation information sheet adds job direction commands to the first image data and the second image data, the storage means stores the job direction commands together with the reference-image and the inspection-image, and the image inspecting means sends inspection progress information indicating progress of the image inspecting process in each job to an inspection information server, thereby to enable to display the inspection progress information on each terminal device.

6. The image inspecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image inspecting process is performed based on an inspecting operation information sheet including the reference-image and the inspection-image, and the inspecting operation information sheet directs sending and receiving of multimedia information such as image and voice indicating the difference point representing portions displayed by the difference point representing image data of the inspection-image, inspection commands, an access code regarding the inspection results and the inspection result data.

7. An image inspecting process for comparing first image data created as data representing a reference-image acting as an inspecting reference with second image data created as data representing an inspection-image acting as a target to automatically extract a difference point between the first image data and the second image data, comprising:

a storage step for storing the reference-image and the inspection-image;

an image processing step for establishing correspondences between at least a part of the stored reference-image as the first image data with at least a part of the stored target image as the second image data at the pixel level to perform an image matching processing of them;

a difference detecting step for comparing the image-matched first and second image data to detect a difference between the first and second image data; and

an image inspecting step for producing different point representing image data using threshold values, which differ at each partial region, to the detected difference to thereby perform an image inspecting process.

8. The image inspecting process according to claim 7, wherein regarding color tunes of the first and second image data, the difference detecting means converts CIEXYZ image or RGB image into L*a*b* values and thereafter converts L*a*b* values into color differences Δ

E or CMYK.

9. The image inspecting process according to claim 7, wherein the threshold value includes a simple threshold value for evaluating in a condition of single threshold value and a multiple threshold value for evaluating in a condition of a plurality of threshold value.