Inspection system and process
First Claim
1. An inspection process for detecting a defect on an inspected surface of an object to be inspected, said inspection process comprising:
- an image producing step of moving said inspected surface relative to an imaging area and forming a sequence of electronic pictures of the inspected surface within said imaging area; and
an image processing step of extracting defect candidate regions from said pictures, of determining a spatial separation from a position of one candidate region extracted from a previous picture which is one of the pictures, to a position of another candidate region extracted from a subsequent picture which is one of the pictures formed after the previous picture in said image producing step, of determining whether said spatial separation is in agreement with a movement of said inspected surface relative to said imaging area, and of judging that there exists a defect in the inspected surface when said spatial separation is in agreement with said movement.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
In order to reliably detect a defect on an inspected surface, electronic pictures of the inspected surface are formed at different positions by moving an imaging area relative to the inspected surface. Defect candidate regions are extracted from a series of the pictures. The system examines whether a movement from one candidate region to another candidate region is proportional to the movement of the imaging area. If the movement between the candidate regions is in proportion to the movement of the imaging area, the system judges that the candidate regions are imagery of a defect on the inspected surface.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. An inspection process for detecting a defect on an inspected surface of an object to be inspected, said inspection process comprising:
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an image producing step of moving said inspected surface relative to an imaging area and forming a sequence of electronic pictures of the inspected surface within said imaging area; and an image processing step of extracting defect candidate regions from said pictures, of determining a spatial separation from a position of one candidate region extracted from a previous picture which is one of the pictures, to a position of another candidate region extracted from a subsequent picture which is one of the pictures formed after the previous picture in said image producing step, of determining whether said spatial separation is in agreement with a movement of said inspected surface relative to said imaging area, and of judging that there exists a defect in the inspected surface when said spatial separation is in agreement with said movement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An inspection system for detecting a defect in an inspected surface of an object to be inspected, said inspection system comprising:
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an image producing means for moving said inspected surface relative to an imaging area and forming a sequence of electronic pictures of the inspected surface within said imaging area; an image processing means for extracting defect candidate regions from said pictures, for determining a spatial separation from a position of one candidate region extracted from a previous picture which is one of the pictures, to a position of another candidate region extracted from a subsequent picture which is one of the pictures formed after the previous picture by said image producing means, for determining whether said spatial separation is in agreement with a movement of said inspected surface relative to said imaging area, and for judging that there exists a defect in the inspected surface when said spatial separation is in agreement with said movement. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An inspection system for detecting a defect on an inspected surface of an object to be inspected, said inspection system comprising:
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an image producing subsystem for moving the inspected surface relative to an imaging area along a predetermined direction from a previous position to a subsequent position and forming a previous picture of the inspected surface within said imaging area at a previous time instant when the inspected surface is located at the previous position, and a subsequent picture of the inspected surface within the imaging area at a subsequent time instant when the inspected surface is located at said subsequent position; and an image processing subsystem for extracting defect candidate regions as a candidate for a defect from said previous and subsequent pictures, for determining an image movement from an image location of the candidate region in said previous picture to an image location of the candidate region in said subsequent picture, for comparing said image movement with a movement of the inspected surface from said previous position to said subsequent position, and for producing a defect detection signal representing presence of a defect when said image movement is substantially in proportion to the movement of the inspected surface from the previous position to the subsequent position. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification