Virtual silk screen for printed circuit boards

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11083080-B2
Application number	US-202017020401-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2020
Priority date	Dec 20, 2018
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

Methods and devices that identify a silkscreen data file associated with a physical printed circuit board and use an image of the physical printed circuit board to display a virtual silkscreen over the image of the physical printed circuit board.

First claim

We claim:

1. A device, comprising:
a sensor device configured to capture data from a physical printed circuit board (PCB);
a processor; and
memory storing at least an executable program, which causes the processor to:
identify the physical PCB from the captured PCB data;
obtain a silkscreen data file associated with the identified PCB;
browse the PCB data to identify one or more reference points on the physical PCB;
receive a user selection of at least one of the one or more reference points; and
overlay a virtual silkscreen over an image of the physical PCB based on the silkscreen data file and the user selected reference points; and

a display configured to display the image of the physical PCB with the overlaid virtual silkscreen.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the sensor device is a camera.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the sensor device is a bar code reader.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to obtain the silkscreen data file from a remote location over a network connection.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the silkscreen data file is stored in the memory.

6. The device of claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to identify the physical PCB by comparing an image of the physical PCB captured by the sensor to images stored in a database.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to browse the PCB image to determine at least one of a scale and orientation of the physical PCB.

8. The device of claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to browse the PCB image to identify specific components.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the silkscreen data file comprises a plurality of component reference designators.

10. A nontransitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions, which causes a processor to execute operations comprising:
identifying a physical printed circuit board (PCB) from PCB data captured by a sensor;
obtaining a silkscreen data file associated with the identified PCB;
browsing the PCB data to identify one or more reference points on the physical PCB;
receiving a user selection of at least one of the one or more reference points;
overlaying a virtual silkscreen over an image of the physical PCB based on the silkscreen data file and the user selected reference points; and
outputting the image of the physical PCB with the overlaid virtual silkscreen to a display.

11. A method implemented on an electronic device having at least a sensor, a display, and a processor, the method comprising:
capturing, by the sensor, data from a physical printed circuit board (PCB);
identify, by the processor, the physical PCB from the captured PCB data;
obtain, by the processor, a silkscreen data file associated with the identified PCB;
browsing, by the processor, the PCB data to identify one or more reference points on the physical PCB;
receiving, by the processor, a user selection of at least one of the one or more reference points; and
overlaying, by the processor, a virtual silkscreen over an image of the physical PCB based on the silkscreen data file and the user selected reference points; and
outputting, by the display, the image of the physical PCB with the overlaid virtual silkscreen.

12. The method of claim 11 , comprising:
receiving, by the processor, the PCB data as an image captured from a physical PCB.

13. The method of claim 12 , comprising:
identifying, by the processor, the physical PCB by comparing the image of the physical PCB captured by the sensor to images stored in a database.

14. The method of claim 12 , comprising:
browsing, by the processor, the image of the physical PCB to determine at least one of a scale and orientation of the physical PCB.

15. The method of claim 12 , comprising:
browsing, by the processor, the image of the physical PCB to identify specific components.

Assignees

• Arris Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Corral Humberto
• Inda Carlos Gonzalez
• Rivas Oswaldo Enrique Linares
• Moreno Luis Lopez
• Vera Julio Cesar Ayala
• Canseco Sergio Antonio Delon

Classifications

• G06V10/248

  by interactive preprocessing or interactive shape modelling, e.g. feature points assigned by a user · CPC title

• G06V10/235

  based on user input or interaction · CPC title

• H05K1/0266 Primary

  Marks, test patterns or identification means · CPC title

• G06V2201/06

  Recognition of objects for industrial automation · CPC title

• B41C1/14

  for stencil-printing or silk-screen printing · CPC title