Patent · US Expired

Particle recognition device

US6728405B1 · kind B1 · utility

4Cited by
2References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 25, 2000
Grant dateApr 27, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 25, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01N15/1433
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An image input section 1 obtains a halftone image IG of a to-be-measured particle group. A binarization section 2 binarizes the halftone image IT to obtain a binary image IB. A distance transform section 3 performs distance transform for the binary image IB to obtain a distance-transformed image ID. In this case, the particle nucleus extraction section 4 obtains particle nucleus candidates from the distance-transformed image ID and extracts a particle nucleus on the basis of the distance between the particle nucleus candidates and a separation parameter PS to obtain a particle nucleus image IC. A particle expansion section 5 performs particle expansion processing for the particle nucleus image IC and distance-transformed image ID to obtain a particle-separated image IS. In this case, the particle expansion section 5 performs particle expansion processing for the particle nucleus in the particle nucleus image IC along the value of distance transform to obtain the particle-separated image IS. A particle is recognized from the particle-separated image IS. In this way, a particle is recognized at a high speed and high accuracy.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.