Importance

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Abstract

As an object moves along a conveyor (A), a position sensor (B) generates a trigger signal. The trigger signal causes a strobe (14) to emit a high intensity flash of light into an examination region. A lens (20) of a CCD camera (C) focuses light from the examination region both before and during the flash on an image section (24) of a CCD array (22). Subsequent to the flash, a trigger signal delay circuit (16) causes a control circuit (D) to shift the lines of pixel values from the image section into a storage section (26), from the storage section to shift registers (32), and serially from the shift register as a video signal. A video signal channel (52) refines the video signal which is transferred to a computer system (E) which implements a preselected quality control algorithm selected in accordance with a product to be examined. The control circuit includes a pulse generator (74), which provides the appropriate clocking pulses to transfer the data among the image section, the storage section, and the shift registers. A line counter (80 ) counts the lines of pixel values transferred from the image section. When the count corresponds to one field of a video image, the counter causes gates (96, 98) to stop passing clock pulses to the image and storage sections for transferring pixel values therebetween.

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First Claim