Foreign matter inspection device and foreign matter inspection method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025277761-A1
Application number	US-202519061272-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 24, 2025
Priority date	Mar 1, 2024
Publication date	Sep 4, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

A foreign matter inspection device includes a region-of-interest setting unit that sets a region of interest including a foreign matter candidate region which is likely to include an image of a foreign matter contained in a product, a mask image generation unit that generates a mask image obtained by masking the foreign matter candidate region, a restored image generation unit that generates a restored image of a good product from the mask image based on a restoration algorithm, a difference evaluation value calculation unit that calculates a difference evaluation value for evaluating a difference between a region-of-interest image and the restored image, and a foreign matter determination unit that determines whether or not the foreign matter candidate region includes the image of the foreign matter based on a comparison between the difference evaluation value and a predetermined threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A foreign matter inspection device that detects a foreign matter included in an inspection object based on an image, the foreign matter inspection device comprising:
a region-of-interest setting unit that sets a region of interest including a foreign matter candidate region, which is likely to include an image of the foreign matter in the inspection object, in an inspection image in which the foreign matter candidate region has been specified; a mask image generation unit that generates a mask image obtained by masking the foreign matter candidate region in an image of the region of interest; a restored image generation unit that generates a restored image from the mask image based on a restoration algorithm of a model obtained by learning a good product image of the inspection object; a difference evaluation value calculation unit that calculates a difference evaluation value for evaluating a difference between the image of the region of interest and the restored image; and a foreign matter determination unit that determines whether or not the foreign matter candidate region includes the image of the foreign matter based on a comparison between the difference evaluation value and a predetermined threshold value.

2 . The foreign matter inspection device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the inspection image is an X-ray absorption image obtained by converting an amount of X-rays transmitted through the inspection object into a density value proportional to a thickness of the inspection object, the difference evaluation value is a value based on a difference between density values of the image of the region of interest and the restored image, and when an absolute value of a positive difference between density values is equal to an absolute value of a negative difference between density values, the difference evaluation value obtained from the positive difference between the density values is different from the difference evaluation value obtained from the negative difference between the density values.

3 . The foreign matter inspection device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the inspection image is an X-ray transmission image obtained by converting an amount of X-rays transmitted through the inspection object into a brightness value, the difference evaluation value is a value based on a difference between brightness values of the image of the region of interest and the restored image, and when an absolute value of a positive difference between brightness values is equal to an absolute value of a negative difference between brightness values, the difference evaluation value obtained from the negative difference between the brightness values is different from the difference evaluation value obtained from the positive difference between the brightness values.

4 . The foreign matter inspection device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a foreign matter candidate region specification unit that specifies the foreign matter candidate region in the inspection image.

5 . The foreign matter inspection device according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a foreign matter candidate region specification unit that specifies the foreign matter candidate region in the inspection image.

6 . The foreign matter inspection device according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a foreign matter candidate region specification unit that specifies the foreign matter candidate region in the inspection image.

7 . A foreign matter inspection method for detecting a foreign matter included in an inspection object based on an image, the foreign matter inspection method comprising:
a region-of-interest setting step of setting a region of interest including a foreign matter candidate region, which is likely to include an image of the foreign matter in the inspection object, in an inspection image in which the foreign matter candidate region has been specified; a mask image generation step of generating a mask image obtained by masking the foreign matter candidate region in an image of the region of interest; a restored image generation step of generating a restored image from the mask image based on a restoration algorithm of a model obtained by learning a good product image of the inspection object; a difference evaluation value calculation step of calculating a difference evaluation value for evaluating a difference between the image of the region of interest and the restored image; and a foreign matter determination step of determining whether or not the foreign matter candidate region includes the image of the foreign matter based on a comparison between the difference evaluation value and a predetermined threshold value.

8 . The foreign matter inspection method according to claim 7 ,
wherein the inspection image is an X-ray absorption image obtained by converting an amount of X-rays transmitted through the inspection object into a density value proportional to a thickness of the inspection object, the difference evaluation value is a value based on a difference between density values of the image of the region of interest and the restored image, and when an absolute value of a positive difference between density values is equal to an absolute value of a negative difference between density values, the difference evaluation value obtained from the positive difference between the density values is different from the difference evaluation value obtained from the negative difference between the density values.

9 . The foreign matter inspection method according to claim 7 ,
wherein the inspection image is an X-ray transmission image obtained by converting an amount of X-rays transmitted through the inspection object into a brightness value, the difference evaluation value is a value based on a difference between brightness values of the image of the region of interest and the restored image, and when an absolute value of a positive difference between brightness values is equal to an absolute value of a negative difference between brightness values, the difference evaluation value obtained from the negative difference between the brightness values is different from the difference evaluation value obtained from the positive difference between the brightness values.

10 . The foreign matter inspection method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
a foreign matter candidate region specification step of specifying the foreign matter candidate region in the inspection image.

Assignees

• Anritsu Corp

Inventors

• Ohashi Akira

Classifications

• G06T2207/30128

  Food products · CPC title

• G06T7/0002

  Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection · CPC title

• G06T7/001

  using an image reference approach · CPC title

• G06T7/0004

  Industrial image inspection · CPC title

• G06V10/761

  Proximity, similarity or dissimilarity measures · CPC title