Classifying method, storage medium, inspection method, and inspection apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016155026-A1
Application number	US-201514943512-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 17, 2015
Priority date	Nov 28, 2014
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention provides a classifying method of classifying an article into one of a plurality of groups based on an image of the article, comprising determining an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, obtaining evaluation values for the sample images by the determined evaluation method, changing a group to which a sample of at least one sample image having a singular evaluation value among the sample images belongs, changing the evaluation method using the sample images after changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs, obtaining an evaluation value for the image of the article using the changed evaluation method, and classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the evaluation value for the image of the article.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A classifying method of classifying an article into one of a plurality of groups based on an image of the article, comprising:
determining an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, the sample images indicating images of a plurality of samples each of which has already been classified into one of the plurality of groups; obtaining evaluation values for the sample images by the determined evaluation method; changing a group to which a sample of at least one sample image having a singular evaluation value among the sample images belongs; changing the evaluation method using the sample images after changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs; and obtaining an evaluation value for the image of the article using the changed evaluation method, and classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the evaluation value for the image of the article.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the changing the group and the changing the evaluation method are repeated so that a degree of dissimilarity in an evaluation value range for sample images between the plurality of groups satisfies an allowable value.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein
the plurality of groups include a first group and a second group, and the at least one sample image is selected from sample images belonging to a portion where an evaluation value range for sample images of the first group overlaps an evaluation value range for sample images of the second group.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the obtaining the evaluation values for the sample images, based on a plurality of feature amounts extracted, as parameters to be used by the evaluation method, from each of the sample images, an evaluation value for each of the sample images is obtained by substituting the plurality of feature amounts into the evaluation method.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the changing the evaluation method, the evaluation values for the sample images after changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs are obtained, and a threshold of the evaluation value for classifying the article is determined based on the obtained evaluation values for the sample images.

6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein in the changing the evaluation method, the threshold is determined in accordance with a rate at which samples that should be classified into a predetermined group among the plurality of groups are classified into the predetermined group.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the changing the group, the at least one sample image is deleted instead of changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the changing the group comprises displaying information that represents, for each group, an evaluation value for each of the sample images.

9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the information comprises a histogram of the evaluation values in each group.

10 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein
the plurality of groups comprises a first group and a second group, and the information comprises a relation between sample images of the first group sorted by the evaluation values and a number of sample images in the second group having an evaluation value corresponding to an evaluation value of the sample images of the first group.

11 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the changing the group comprises specifying the at least one sample image based on the information displayed in the displaying.

12 . A classifying method of classifying an article into one of a plurality of groups based on an image of the article, comprising:
determining an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, the sample images indicating images of a plurality of samples each of which has already been classified into one of the plurality of groups; obtaining evaluation values for the sample images by the evaluation method; changing a group to which a sample of at least one sample image having a singular evaluation value among the sample images belongs; obtaining, by the evaluation method, the evaluation values for the sample images after changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs, and determining, based on the obtained evaluation values for the sample images, a threshold of the evaluation value for classifying the article; and obtaining an evaluation value for the image of the article using the evaluation method, and classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the threshold.

13 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute each step of a classifying method of classifying an article into one of a plurality of groups based on an image of the article, the method comprising:
determining an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, the sample images indicating images of a plurality of samples each of which has already been classified into one of the plurality of groups; obtaining evaluation values for the sample images by the determined evaluation method; changing a group to which a sample of at least one sample image having a singular evaluation value among the sample images belongs; changing the evaluation method using the sample images after changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs; and obtaining an evaluation value for the image of the article using the changed evaluation method, and classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the evaluation value for the image of the article.

14 . An inspection method of performing inspection of an article, comprising:
obtaining an image of the article by capturing the article; and classifying the article into one of a plurality of groups using a classifying method, wherein the classifying method is a method of classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the image of the article, and includes: determining an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, the sample images indicating images of a plurality of samples each of which has already been classified into one of the plurality of groups; obtaining evaluation values for the sample images by the determined evaluation method; changing a group to which a sample of at least one sample image having a singular evaluation value among the sample images belongs; changing the evaluation method using the sample images after changing the group to which the sample of the at least one sample image belongs; and obtaining an evaluation value for the image of the article using the changed evaluation method, and classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the evaluation value for the image of the article.

15 . An inspection apparatus for performing inspection of an article, comprising:
an image capturing unit configured to obtain an image of the article by capturing the article; and a processing unit configured to classify the article into one of a plurality of groups based on the image of the article, wherein said processing unit determines an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, the

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Hashiguchi Hidenori
• Okuda Hiroshi

Classifications

• G06T7/001 Primary

  using an image reference approach · CPC title

• G06V10/772

  Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. averaging or distorting patterns; Generating dictionaries · CPC title

• G06F18/28

  Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. by averaging or distorting; Generating dictionaries · CPC title

• G06F18/24

  Classification techniques · CPC title

• G06T5/40

  using histogram techniques · CPC title