Acoustic and video imaging system for quality determination of pharmaceutical products
First Claim
1. An apparatus for determining quality of a pharmaceutical product of a predefined type, comprising:
- impact transducer means for generating a transducer signal indicative of a set of physical characteristics representative of composition of said product;
imaging means for synthesizing a digital image representation of physical appearance of said product; and
signal processing means for analyzing said transducer signal and said digital image representation in accordance with a transducer impact signal routine and an image analysis routine respectively;
whereby, based on results of said transducer impact signal and image analysis routines, a degree of quality is associated with said pharmaceutical product.
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Abstract
A flexible system for determining the quality of pharmaceutical products based on characteristics such as, for example, mass, shape, hardness, size, color and surface texture is disclosed herein. The quality determination apparatus includes a feeder assembly for sequentially dropping individual product samples upon an impact transducer arrangement. The impact transducer generates transducer signals indicative of the physical characteristics of each product sample. In addition, an imaging device operates to synthesize a digital image representation of each product sample. The transducer signal and digital image representation corresponding to each product are analyzed so as to determine the appropriate degree of quality to be associated therewith.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. An apparatus for determining quality of a pharmaceutical product of a predefined type, comprising:
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impact transducer means for generating a transducer signal indicative of a set of physical characteristics representative of composition of said product; imaging means for synthesizing a digital image representation of physical appearance of said product; and signal processing means for analyzing said transducer signal and said digital image representation in accordance with a transducer impact signal routine and an image analysis routine respectively; whereby, based on results of said transducer impact signal and image analysis routines, a degree of quality is associated with said pharmaceutical product. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for determining quality of a pharmaceutical product of a predefined type comprising the steps of:
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dropping said product upon an impact transducer, said transducer being disposed to generate a transducer signal indicative of a set of physical characteristics representative of composition of said product; creating an image of said product; digitizing said image and creating a digital image representation of said product; storing said digital image representation in computer memory; analyzing said transducer signal and digital image representation in accordance with a transducer impact signal routine and an image analysis routine respectively; whereby, based on results of said transducer impact signal and image analysis routines, a degree of quality is associated with said pharmaceutical product. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification