Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus including a source for producing a concentrated light beam, such as a laser, a background spaced from the source against which the light beam is directed, and a transport arrangement for moving translucent bodies, such as French cut potatoes, through the light beam. Another light source illuminates the background independently of the concentrated light beam. A receiver receives light reflected from the background and from translucent bodies moving through the light beam, as well as from the independent light source illuminating the background. The receiver produces an output signal which changes when an impurity enters the concentrated light beam, and this changed signal is used to operate a device which removes the impurity from the remainder of the translucent bodies. The light beam may be scanned across a plurality of rows of moving bodies by directing the beam at a rapidly rotating multifaceted mirror. Circuitry is employed to indicate which row contains the sensed impurity so as to direct the appropriate impurity-removing device to operate.

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First Claim