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Shape detecting apparatus

  • US 4,472,056 A
  • Filed: 07/23/1981
  • Issued: 09/18/1984
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/23/1980
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A shape detecting apparatus comprising:

  • a slit projector for projecting a slit-like bright line on a plurality of objects arranged in a line;

    an image forming lens for forming a bright line image from said slit-like bright line;

    image scanning means for scanning the bright line image obtained through said image forming lens in a direction of the height of said objects;

    a one-dimensional image sensing device having a plurality of image sensing elements arranged in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction of said image scanning means, including means for self-scanning said bright line image formed by said image forming lens by scanning said plurality of image sensing elements in said perpendicular direction;

    a Z-coordinate generating circuit for generating a Z-coordinate in a direction of the height of said object on the basis of a trigger signal of said one-dimensional image sensing device;

    an A/D converting circuit for A/D converting a video signal obtained from said one-dimensional image sensing device; and

    memory means for storing a Z-coordinate obtained from said Z-coordinate generating circuit corresponding to each X-coordinate representing the image sensing elements of said one-dimensional image sensing device, said Z-coordinate representing a maximum value of the video signal at said each X-coordinate, which is obtained by means of searching from the digital video signal A/D converted by said A/D converting circuit,whereby a contour of each of the objects is detected from the Z-coordinate corresponding to each X-coordinate produced from said memory means,said apparatus further comprising;

    a histogram forming means for forming for each frame a frequency distribution of the Z-coordinate representing the maximum value of the video signal at said each X-coordinate;

    a peak position detecting means for detecting a peak Z-position which provides a maximum in said frequency distribution formed by said histogram forming means; and

    automatic control means for relatively moving a light segmented-image detecting head comprising said image forming lens, image scanning means, and the one-dimensional image sensing device, with respect to the objects and vice versa so that a focal point of said image forming lens coincides with a peak Z-position detected by said peak position detecting means.

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