Practical Optical Fourier Analysis For High Speed Inspection

A fully engineered real-time (15 objects/s) optical Fourier transform feature space processor for product inspection is described. This unit is presently undergoing evaluation at several sites. This paper discusses the feature space techniques employed, the advantages of the Fourier transform reduced-dimensionality feature space used, and several of its properties. Emphasis is given to initial performance data obtained in many diverse applications.