JPH08138034A - Composite picture data input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain an accurate composite picture data by extracting and input ting pictures consisting of a prescribed number of dots around the centers of plural cameras and generating composite picture data from these picture data. CONSTITUTION: Picked-up image data where one line consists of 2048 picture elements is supplied from each of CCD line sensor cameras 1 to 4. A multiplexer unit 5 first selects and extracts 5120-dot picture data in the center part of the camera 1 based on a supplied synchronizing signal. At the next timing, the unit 5 selects and extracts 512-dot picture data in the center part of the camera 2. At the next timing, the unit 5 selects and extracts 512-dot picture data in the center part of the camera 3. At the next timing, the unit 5 selects and extracts 512-dot picture data in the center part of the camera 4. Thus, the multiplexer unit 5 composite pictures in center parts of cameras 1 to 4 as if it composite picture from one camera, and composite picture data is generated and is supplied to a picture processing part in the succeeding stage.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a combined image data input device for combining image data picked up by a plurality of line sensor cameras to generate one image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various apparatuses for inspecting the appearance of an object to be inspected by using image processing technology have been developed.

In these appearance inspection apparatuses, a line sensor camera is used to pick up an image of an object to be inspected, and image data obtained by this image pickup operation is subjected to image processing to perform an appearance inspection of the object to be inspected. In this case, in the line sensor camera, the lens is distorted between the center of the lens and the periphery of the lens, and shading with different input densities occurs. For this reason,
If the entire field of view data of the lens is used, there is a difference in the obtained data between the center of the lens and the surroundings, and accurate inspection data cannot be obtained.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a steel plate 101 before can making has a width of 2 to 3 m, and a varnish-removing portion (this portion is used for joining) 102 is formed on the surface thereof in the conveying direction. A plurality of strips (e.g., four strips) are formed substantially parallel to each other. When a single camera 103 takes an image to inspect whether or not the varnish-excluding portion is accurately formed, the distortion of both ends of the lens has an influence due to the characteristics of the lens. In this case, the desired data is the varnish excluding part, and the data between the varnish excluding and the varnish excluding is not important. Therefore, in this case, considering the characteristics of the lens, it is conceivable that, of the four varnish-excluding portions, two at both ends cannot be accurately inspected.

Therefore, conventionally, when the object to be inspected is wider than the field of view of the camera, considering that the effect of shading is large in one camera, a plurality of cameras are used to capture images of each camera. It is conceivable to share the places and combine the camera images to obtain one image data.

[0006]

However, in the above-described method of synthesizing image data from a plurality of cameras to obtain synthetic image data, it is necessary for each camera of the portion for inputting image data from the cameras, There is a problem that the device configuration becomes large.

Further, if the image data of a plurality of cameras are simply combined, depending on the timing, the image data of the peripheral portion of the lens may be fetched instead of the image data of the central portion of the camera for inspection. It also warps and decreases the inspection accuracy.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to obtain accurate combined image data by combining images from a plurality of line sensor cameras with a simple device configuration. It is to provide a composite image data input device.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention uses a plurality of line sensor cameras to pick up an image of one object to be inspected and obtains image data obtained by this image pickup operation. In the image data input of the appearance inspection device that performs the appearance inspection of the object to be inspected, an image of a predetermined number of dots near the center of each camera is extracted from each image data from the plurality of line sensor cameras. It is characterized by comprising image data selecting means for inputting, and image data synthesizing means for generating synthesized image data from the extracted image data and outputting the synthesized image data to the image processing unit in the subsequent stage.

[0010]

The image data in the vicinity of the center of each of the plurality of cameras is extracted, the signals thereof are combined and supplied to the image processing apparatus side.
Since the image data of each camera is the image data of a predetermined number of dots at the center of the lens, it is data without lens distortion.
In this way, the image data in the vicinity of the lens having an excellent resolution is combined from the images of the plurality of cameras to obtain the combined image data of the field of view of one camera.

[0011]

1 is a block diagram showing the construction of an embodiment of a composite image data input device according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, this image data input device comprises four CCD line sensor cameras 1, 2, 3, 4
The multiplex unit 5 which takes in the image data picked up by (1) by a predetermined synchronizing signal is provided.

Each of the cameras 1 to 4 has an image signal cable 11, 12, 13, 14 and a sync signal cable 2 respectively.
1, 22, 23, and 24 are connected, and the cameras 1 to 4 and the multiplexer unit 5 are connected via these cables. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, each of the cameras 1 to 4 has four varnish removing portions 10 in the steel plate inspection line.
It is arranged in the vicinity of 2, and each camera separately images the varnish removing portion.

The multiplex unit 5 connects four cameras 1 to 4 and synthesizes the images of the central portions of the cameras 1 to 4 as if they were images from one camera to generate synthetic image data. Then, the image is supplied to an image processing unit (not shown) in the subsequent stage.

Next, the image synthesizing process in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
The timing chart will be described.

One line from each of the cameras 1 to 4 is 204
Imaging data of 8 pixels is supplied. The multiplexer unit 5 first selects and extracts image data for 512 dots in the central portion of the camera 1 based on the supplied synchronization signal. At the next timing, the selection of the image data of the camera 1 is completed, and at the same time, the central portion of the camera 2 512
Image data for dots is selectively extracted. At the next timing, the selection of the image data of the camera 2 is completed, and at the same time, the image data of 512 dots in the central portion of the camera 3 is selectively extracted. At the next timing, the camera 3
The selection of the image data is completed, and at the same time, the image data for 512 dots in the central portion of the camera 4 is selectively extracted.

The composite image data obtained in this manner is stored in the central portion of each camera as shown in FIG.
Only 12-dot data is continuously combined. This central portion is the portion with the least lens distortion in the camera, and is not necessary for inspection except for the data imaged by the central portion of this camera (that is, the varnish-excluding portion). Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to obtain an inspection image without lens distortion and without unnecessary data.

In the present embodiment, the configuration in which four camera images are combined to obtain one image has been described.
It is also possible to combine the images of a single camera or five or more cameras in exactly the same manner. 1 for 1 to 4 units
The number of pixels taken from each camera is shown in FIG.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain accurate combined image data by combining images from a plurality of line sensor cameras with a simple device configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a composite image data input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an arrangement configuration of a carrier line and a camera to which the composite image data input device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of one embodiment of the composite image data input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the number of pixels taken in from one camera.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional problem.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2, 3, 4 line sensor camera 5 multiplexor unit 101 steel plate (inspection object) 102 varnish excluding part

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image of an appearance inspection apparatus that images one inspected object using a plurality of line sensor cameras, and performs an appearance inspection of the inspected object based on image data obtained by the imaging operation. In data input, image data selecting means for extracting and inputting an image of a predetermined number of dots at the center of each camera from the image data from the plurality of line sensor cameras, and composite image data from the extracted image data Image data synthesizing means for generating and outputting to the image processing unit in the subsequent stage, and a synthetic image data input device.