OCR and code reading on moulded components
23 October 2012
Automatic reading of part numbers, serial numbers and batch information formed into the surface of moulded components can be difficult using conventional 2D vision systems.
This is due to the very low contrast between the code and the component surface. Stemmer Imaging is able to demonstrate the capabilities of its LMI Gocator 3D smart camera to successfully image these codes, even where they are at varying heights.
Gocator line profiling sensors allow the measurement of a component's surface topography and profile data. The 3D point cloud (height map) from the Gocator can be used to inspect the dimensions (width, length and depth) and locations of the moulded characters. Codes and characters are colour coded according to their height, allowing simultaneous display of characters at varying heights on the component surface.
Height map data can be analysed and read by interfacing the Gocator to either Sherlock or Common Vision Blox (CVB) software. Sherlock is a powerful machine vision software interface from Telydyne DALSA. It can be applied to a wide variety of automated inspection applications and features a full range of reader identification tools, including 1D and 2D code reading and verification and optical character recognition.
Common Vision Blox is Stemmer’s own software platform for quick and reliable vision application development. This fast, powerful and modular programming library supports all common acquisition technologies. CVB search and read tools provide optical character recognition, optical code verification and 1D and 2D code reading.
The image above is of a 3D OCR from a tyre wall.
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