Patent Application
20120093422
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for sorting balls, and more particularly to a method for sorting balls by image recognition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A first conventional ball roundness sorting machine comprises a feeding apparatus, an inspection apparatus and a dispensing apparatus. The inspection device includes a round disc and a speed controller for controlling the rotation speed of the round disc. The round disc is located under a chute of a feeding box and driven by a DC motor to rotate and includes a stopping plate on an inner side edge thereof, in front of the chute of the feeding box is disposed an obliquity guide plate, and at an inner side of the round disc is further disposed another guide plate. The two guide plates are used to guide the balls on the round disc to be inspected and sorted in turn.
A second conventional ball sorting machine sorts the balls with the following method that a light-emitting unit is used to radiate light on the balls to make the balls reflect a light to be received by a light received unit, and then the balls will be determined whether they have defects by comparing the light intensity for sorting the balls. For example, if the intensity difference of a ball is higher than a predetermined value, the ball surface is determined to have defects.
The above two sorting machines both can sort the balls into two kinds: acceptable and unacceptable, but neither can offer effective analysis data to improve the ball manufacturing process accurately.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method for sorting balls by image recognition which can accurately improve the ball manufacturing process.
Hence, in order to achieve the above objective, a method for sorting balls by image recognition in accordance with the present invention comprises the steps of: feeding ball: feeding a ball to a conveying apparatus in such a manner that a first surface of the ball is exposed; capturing image for a first time: utilizing an image capturing apparatus to capture and store an image of the first surface of the ball; and comparing image: comparing the image of the first surface of the ball with respect to image data in a database to establish data related to acceptable balls, unacceptable balls and kinds of the unacceptable balls.
Preferably, the ball includes at least the first surface and a second surface, the method for sorting balls by image recognition further comprises the steps of making ball rotate and capturing image for a second time, the balls are rotated by the conveying apparatus to make the second surface of the ball protrude out in the step of making ball rotate, a second image capturing apparatus is used to capture and store an image of the second surface of the ball in the step of capturing image for a second time, the captured images of the first surface and the second surface are compared with respect to the image data in the database, respectively in the step of comparing image.
Preferably, the conveying apparatus in the step of feeding ball includes a rotary disc which is made of transparent material and is provided with at least one light source unit to radiate light on the rotary disc to make the first and the second image capturing apparatus capture the images more clearly.
Preferably, the method for sorting balls by image recognition further comprises the step of discharging balls after the step of comparing image, the balls being controlled to fall in different direction according to a result of the step of comparing image.
The present invention will be clearer from the following description when viewed together with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purpose of illustrations only, the preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
Referring to
The step of feeding ball 11: referring to
The step of capturing image for a first time 12: a first image capturing apparatus 41 is used to capture the image of the first surface 21 of the ball 20. The image capturing apparatus 41 is a normal camera. The first image capturing apparatus 41 is disposed at a first position 51 for capturing and storing the image of the first surface 21 of the ball 20. The first position 51 is aligned with the tapered hole 321 of the rotary disc 32.
The step of making ball rotate 13: the balls 20 are rotated by the conveying apparatus 30 to make their second surfaces 22 protrude out. In the present embodiment, the rotary disc 32 of the conveying apparatus 30 is controlled to rotate an angle, and since the balls 20 are restricted in the tapered holes 321 of the rotary disc 30, and part of the ball 20 contacts the rolling groove 311 of the chassis 31, the rotary disc 32 will drive the balls 20 in the tapered holes 321 to roll along the rolling groove 311, making the second surfaces 22 of the balls 20 protrude out of the tapered holes 321.
The step of capturing image for a second time 14: a second image capturing apparatus 42 is used to capture and store the image of the second surface 22 of the ball 20. The second image capturing apparatus 42 is a normal camera and disposed at a second position to capture and store the image of the second surface 22 of the ball 20. The second position 52 is aligned to the tapered hole 321 of the rotary disc 32 which rotates the angle.
The step of comparing images 15: the stored images of the first surface 21 and the second surfaces of the balls 20 are compared with the image data in the database, respectively to establish the data related to the acceptable balls, unacceptable balls, and kinds of unacceptable balls.
The step of discharging balls 16: according to the result from the step of comparing images 15, detecting and classifying the kinds of the balls, including acceptable balls, unacceptable balls with scratch, unacceptable balls with strain, and etc, controlling the respective balls 20 to fall in different directions.
Hence, the sorting method by image recognition in accordance with the present invention can not only sort the balls into two kinds: one is acceptable, and the other is unacceptable but sort the unacceptable balls into different kinds according to the kinds of the defects, such as: scratch, strain, and so on. Thereby, it can establish data of the balls to offer the effective analysis data to improve the ball manufacturing process accurately.
In addition, the present invention can also accurately improve the manufacturing process with the steps of capturing image for a single time and comparing the image with the image data in the database. Of course, capturing the image of the ball for more than two times and comparing the images with respect to the image data in the database are also feasible. The more times the image is captured, the more accurate the result of the comparing is.
It is to be noted that, referring to
While we have shown and described various embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is clear to those skilled in the art that further embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
