Using distance transform to solve real-time machine vision inspection problems

This paper describes novel solutions to two challenging real-time inspection tasks in machine vision. The first is fast surface approximation for volume and surface area measurements of irregularly shaped objects; the second is fast intensity gradient correction for surface inspection and evaluation of spherical objects. Both solutions apply a distance transform (DT) based on the distance of each image pixel from the object boundary. We describe both real-time machine vision inspection tasks and discuss their complexity. We show that the new solutions result in significant improvements in both accuracy and efficiency—despite the relative simplicity of the DT approach.

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