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Method and apparatus for determining a liquid level in a container using imaging

  • US 9,002,096 B2
  • Filed: 12/11/2009
  • Issued: 04/07/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for determining a level of a sample comprising:

  • capturing an image of the sample housed in a container, wherein the image is represented as a two dimensional array of intensities of light;

    extracting an area of interest from the image including a bottom of the container;

    applying a filter to the area of interest;

    horizontally collapsing the filtered area into a one dimensional vertical array based on normalized sums of line elements in the two dimensional array for each vertical unit in the one dimensional vertical array;

    masking the one dimensional vertical array;

    determining the bottom of the container and a simple-air interface based on the masked one dimensional array;

    and determining the level of the sample in the container based on the determined bottom of the container and the sample-air interface.

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