Electrical pulse counters – pulse dividers – or shift registers: c – Applications – Counting animate or inanimate entities
Patent
1996-06-13
1998-06-16
Wambach, Margaret Rose
Electrical pulse counters, pulse dividers, or shift registers: c
Applications
Counting animate or inanimate entities
377 7, 377 11, G06M 1102
Patent
active
057683271
ABSTRACT:
An object counter includes a feeding funnel having a frustroconical section, the narrow end of which is coupled to a substantially vertical feeding channel having a substantially rectangular cross section. A pair of linear optical sensor arrays are arranged along adjacent orthogonal sides of the feeding channel and a corresponding pair of collimated light sources are arranged along the opposite adjacent sides of the feeding channel such that each sensor in each array receives light the corresponding light source. Objects which are placed in the feeding funnel fall into the feeding channel and cast shadows on sensors in the arrays as they pass through the feeding channel. Outputs from each of the two linear optical arrays are processed separately, preferably according to various conservative criteria, and two object counts are thereby obtained. The higher of the two conservative counts is accepted as the accurate count and is displayed on a numeric display. In another embodiment, four sensor arrays and light sources are provided. The third and fourth sensor arrays and corresponding light sources are located downstream of the first and second arrays. The outputs of each of the sensor arrays are processed separately and the highest conservative count is accepted as the accurate count and is displayed on a numeric display.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4743760 (1988-05-01), Giles
patent: 5313508 (1994-05-01), Ditman et al.
patent: 5317645 (1994-05-01), Perozek et al.
Chessa John Francis
Perozek Barbara Lyn
Pinto Itzhak
Gordon David P.
Kirby Lester Inc.
Wambach Margaret Rose
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