Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100303337 | Methods and Apparatus for Practical 3D Vision System - A method and system for specifying an area of interest in a 3D imaging system including a plurality of cameras that include at least first and second cameras wherein each camera has a field of view arranged along a camera distinct trajectory, the method comprising the steps of presenting a part at a location within the fields of view of the plurality of cameras, indicating on the part an area of interest that is within the field of view of each of the plurality of cameras, for each of the plurality of cameras: (i) acquiring at least one image of the part including the area of interest, (ii) identifying a camera specific field of interest within the field of view of the camera associated with the area of interest in the at least one image and (iii) storing the field of interest for subsequent use. | 12-02-2010 |
20110058730 | IMAGE PREPROCESSING FOR PROBE MARK INSPECTION - Digital image processing methods are applied to an image of a semiconductor interconnection pad to preprocess the image prior to an inspection or registration. An image of a semiconductor pads exhibiting spatial patterns from structure, texture or features are filtered without affecting features in the image not associated with structure or texture. The filtered image is inspected in a probe mark inspection operation. | 03-10-2011 |
20110298934 | Method and Apparatus for Human Interface to a Machine Vision System - An apparatus and method are disclosed for setting up a vision system having a camera and a vision processor cooperative with the camera. The apparatus includes a gesture recognizer, a key recognizer, a breakout box having at least two signaling elements, and a setup control unit that is cooperative with the gesture recognizer, the key recognizer, and the breakout box. The combination of using a key and a gesture set as herein described is substantially superior, as compared with known user interfaces for setting up a vision system that has been previously been engineered, in terms of low-cost, convenience, ease-of-use, simplicity, and speed. | 12-08-2011 |
20130182948 | Method and Apparatus for Training a Probe Model Based Machine Vision System - A method for training a pattern recognition algorithm including the steps of identifying the known location of the pattern that includes repeating elements within a fine resolution image, using the fine resolution image to train a model associated with the fine image, using the model to examine the fine image resolution image to generate a score space, examining the score space to identify a repeating pattern frequency, using a coarse image that is coarser than the finest image resolution image to train a model associated with the coarse image, using the model associated with the coarse image to examine the coarse image thereby generating a location error, comparing the location error to the repeating pattern frequency and determining if the coarse image resolution is suitable for locating the pattern within a fraction of one pitch of the repeating elements. | 07-18-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080298672 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOCATING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECT USING MACHINE VISION - This invention provides a system and method for determining position of a viewed object in three dimensions by employing 2D machine vision processes on each of a plurality of planar faces of the object, and thereby refining the location of the object. First a rough pose estimate of the object is derived. This rough pose estimate can be based upon predetermined pose data, or can be derived by acquiring a plurality of planar face poses of the object (using, for example multiple cameras) and correlating the corners of the trained image pattern, which have known coordinates relative to the origin, to the acquired patterns. Once the rough pose is achieved, this is refined by defining the pose as a quaternion (a, b, c and d) for rotation and a three variables (x, y, z) for translation and employing an iterative weighted, least squares error calculation to minimize the error between the edgelets of trained model image and the acquired runtime edgelets. The overall, refined/optimized pose estimate incorporates data from each of the cameras' acquired images. Thereby, the estimate minimizes the total error between the edgelets of each camera's/view's trained model image and the associated camera's/view's acquired runtime edgelets. A final transformation of trained features relative to the runtime features is derived from the iterative error computation. | 12-04-2008 |
20090141973 | Method of pattern location using color image data - Machine vision tools are applied to color images using methods that that utilize an optimized spectrum of the color information. Such methods include full color normalized correlation techniques and methods to convert color images to greyscale using weighting factors that maximize color contrast in a corresponding greyscale image. | 06-04-2009 |
20090290788 | System and method for performing multi-image training for pattern recognition and registration - A system and method for performing multi-image training for pattern recognition and registration is provided. A machine vision system first obtains N training images of the scene. Each of the N images is used as a baseline image and the N−1 images are registered to the baseline. Features that represent a set of corresponding image features are added to the model. The feature to be added to the model may comprise an average of the features from each of the images in which the feature appears. The process continues until every feature that meets a threshold requirement is accounted for. The model that results from the present invention represents those stable features that are found in at least the threshold number of the N training images. The model may then be used to train an alignment/inspection tool with the set of features. | 11-26-2009 |
20100166294 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL ALIGNMENT OF OBJECTS USING MACHINE VISION - This invention provides a system and method for determining the three-dimensional alignment of a modeledobject or scene. After calibration, a 3D (stereo) sensor system views the object to derive a runtime 3D representation of the scene containing the object. Rectified images from each stereo head are preprocessed to enhance their edge features. A stereo matching process is then performed on at least two (a pair) of the rectified preprocessed images at a time by locating a predetermined feature on a first image and then locating the same feature in the other image. 3D points are computed for each pair of cameras to derive a 3D point cloud. The 3D point cloud is generated by transforming the 3D points of each camera pair into the world 3D space from the world calibration. The amount of 3D data from the point cloud is reduced by extracting higher-level geometric shapes (HLGS), such as line segments. Found HLGS from runtime are corresponded to HLGS on the model to produce candidate 3D poses. A coarse scoring process prunes the number of poses. The remaining candidate poses are then subjected to a further more-refined scoring process. These surviving candidate poses are then verified by, for example, fitting found 3D or 2D points of the candidate poses to a larger set of corresponding three-dimensional or two-dimensional model points, whereby the closest match is the best refined three-dimensional pose. | 07-01-2010 |
20110280472 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ROBUST CALIBRATION BETWEEN A MACHINE VISION SYSTEM AND A ROBOT - A system and method for robustly calibrating a vision system and a robot is provided. The system and method enables a plurality of cameras to be calibrated into a robot base coordinate system to enable a machine vision/robot control system to accurately identify the location of objects of interest within robot base coordinates. | 11-17-2011 |
20110314385 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING GRAPHICAL MACHINE VISION CONTENT FOR DISTRIBUTION VIA A NETWORK - A method and system is provided for viewing machine vision information. The machine vision information includes machine vision data representing a sequence of machine vision processing steps. The machine vision information pertaining to a machine vision process on a given machine vision processor is produced. The machine vision information is displayed at a device remotely located from the given machine vision processor. A selection interface is provided on the device to allow a user to view the machine vision data corresponding to at least one stage of the machine vision processing. | 12-22-2011 |
20120147149 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRAINING A MODEL IN A PLURALITY OF NON-PERSPECTIVE CAMERAS AND DETERMINING 3D POSE OF AN OBJECT AT RUNTIME WITH THE SAME - This invention provides a system and method for training and performing runtime 3D pose determination of an object using a plurality of camera assemblies in a 3D vision system. The cameras are arranged at different orientations with respect to a scene, so as to acquire contemporaneous images of an object, both at training and runtime. Each of the camera assemblies includes a non-perspective lens that acquires a respective non-perspective image for use in the process. The searched object features in one of the acquired non-perspective image can be used to define the expected location of object features in the second (or subsequent) non-perspective images based upon an affine transform, which is computed based upon at least a subset of the intrinsics and extrinsics of each camera. The locations of features in the second, and subsequent, non-perspective images can be refined by searching within the expected location of those images. This approach can be used in training, to generate the training model, and in runtime operating on acquired images of runtime objects. The non-perspective cameras can employ telecentric lenses. | 06-14-2012 |
20120148145 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FINDING CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CAMERAS IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL VISION SYSTEM - This invention provides a system and method for determining correspondence between camera assemblies in a 3D vision system implementation having a plurality of cameras arranged at different orientations with respect to a scene, so as to acquire contemporaneous images of a runtime object and determine the pose of the object, and in which at least one of the camera assemblies includes a non-perspective lens. The searched 2D object features of the acquired non-perspective image, corresponding to trained object features in the non-perspective camera assembly, can be combined with the searched 2D object features in images of other camera assemblies (perspective or non-perspective), based on their trained object features to generate a set of 3D image features and thereby determine a 3D pose of the object. In this manner the speed and accuracy of the overall pose determination process is improved. The non-perspective lens can be a telecentric lens. | 06-14-2012 |
20140118500 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FINDING CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CAMERAS IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL VISION SYSTEM - This invention provides a system and method for determining correspondence between camera assemblies in a 3D vision system implementation having a plurality of cameras arranged at different orientations with respect to a scene involving microscopic and near microscopic objects under manufacture moved by a manipulator, so as to acquire contemporaneous images of a runtime object and determine the pose of the object for the purpose of guiding manipulator motion. At least one of the camera assemblies includes a non-perspective lens. The searched 2D object features of the acquired non-perspective image, corresponding to trained object features in the non-perspective camera assembly can be combined with the searched 2D object features in images of other camera assemblies, based on their trained object features to generate a set of 3D features and thereby determine a 3D pose of the object. | 05-01-2014 |
20140347473 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT SURFACE MEASUREMENT USING A LASER DISPLACEMENT SENSOR - This invention provides a system for measuring displacement of an object surface having a displacement sensor that projects a line on the object surface and receives light from the projected line at an imager in a manner defines a plurality of displacement values in a height direction. A vision system processor operates on rows of imager pixels to determine a laser line center in columns of imager pixels in each of a plurality of regions of interest. Each region of interest defines a plurality of rows that correspond with expected locations of the projected line on the object surface. A GUI can be used to establish the regions. In further embodiments, the system generates grayscale images with the imager. These grayscale images can be compared to a generated height image to compensate for contrast-induced false height readings. Imager pixels can be compared to a reference voltage to locate the line. | 11-27-2014 |