Apparatus for measuring height of a liquid in a container using area image pattern recognition techniques
First Claim
1. Apparatus for measuring height of a surface of liquid in a container, said apparatus comprising:
- a light source disposed above the liquid surface for illuminating the liquid surface with a pattern of light;
means for capturing an area image of said light pattern in a form of discrete picture elements (pixels);
means for indexing the pixels in accordance with their position in the captured area image; and
means for processing said indexed pixels of the captured area image to identify a pattern based on a light intensity of the pixels, and for determining the height of said liquid surface in the container based on characteristics of the identified pattern of pixels of said area image.
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Abstract
This disclosure is directed to apparatus for measuring height of a surface of liquid in a container utilizing a light source and camera pair disposed above the liquid surface in a predetermined spatial relationship to each other and the container. The light source illuminates the liquid surface with a light pattern and the camera captures the area image of the light pattern in a form of discrete picture elements (pixels) that are processed in an image processor to determine the height of liquid in the container. In another embodiment, the pixels of the area image are further processed to determine attitude of the liquid surface so that the processor may determine the quantity of liquid in the container based on the determined height and attitude of the liquid surface and container geometry data stored in a memory thereof. In yet another embodiment, a plurality of light source/camera pairs are disposed above the liquid surface, each pair operates by capturing an area image of the light pattern on a portion of the liquid surface illuminated by its light source. The pixels of the area image of each pair are processed in the image processor to determine the heights of the corresponding liquid surface portions. In still another embodiment, a plurality of cameras are disposed above the liquid surface to observe at least one light pattern at different viewing angles. Each camera captures an area image of the at least one light pattern and the pixels of such area images are processed in the image processor to determine at least one height for the liquid surface in the container. In this embodiment, the image processor may include an algorithm for combining together the pixels of the various area images of the plurality of cameras to determine the at least one liquid surface height.
59 Citations
29 Claims
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1. Apparatus for measuring height of a surface of liquid in a container, said apparatus comprising:
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a light source disposed above the liquid surface for illuminating the liquid surface with a pattern of light;
means for capturing an area image of said light pattern in a form of discrete picture elements (pixels);
means for indexing the pixels in accordance with their position in the captured area image; and
means for processing said indexed pixels of the captured area image to identify a pattern based on a light intensity of the pixels, and for determining the height of said liquid surface in the container based on characteristics of the identified pattern of pixels of said area image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. Apparatus for measuring height of a surface of liquid in a container, said apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of light sources disposed above the liquid surface, each said light source for illuminating a portion of the liquid surface with a pattern of light;
image capturing means corresponding to each light source of said plurality, each said means for capturing an area image of said light pattern illuminated by its corresponding light source in a form of discrete picture elements (pixels);
means for indexing the pixels of each image capturing means in accordance with their position in the corresponding captured area image; and
means for processing said indexed pixels of the captured area image of each image capturing means of said plurality to identify a pattern based on a light intensity of the pixels, and for determining the height of said liquid surface in the container based on characteristics of the identified pattern of pixels of said area images. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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Specification