Tony Rodriguez

US Patent:

20220331841, Oct 20, 2022

Filed:

Apr 15, 2022

Appl. No.:

17/721694

Inventors:

- Beaverton OR, US
Vojtech Holub - Lafayette CO, US
Ravi K. Sharma - Portland OR, US
Tony F. Rodriguez - Portland OR, US
Osama M. Alattar - Tigard OR, US
Adnan M. Alattar - Tigard OR, US
Hugh L. Brunk - Portland OR, US
Brett A. Bradley - Portland OR, US
Ajith M. Kamath - Beaverton OR, US

International Classification:

B07C 5/342
B65G 47/26
G06K 9/62

Abstract:

A waste stream is analyzed and sorted to segregate different items for recycling. Certain features of the technology improve the accuracy with which waste stream items are diverted to collection repositories. Other features concern adaptation of neural networks in accordance with context information sensed from the waste. Still other features serve to automate and simplify maintenance of machine vision systems used in waste sorting. Yet other aspects of the technology concern marking 2D machine readable code data on items having complex surfaces (e.g., food containers with integral ribbing for structural strength or juice pooling), to mitigate issues that such surfaces can introduce in code reading. Still other aspects of the technology concern prioritizing certain blocks of conveyor belt imagery for analysis. Yet other aspects of the technology concern joint use of near infrared spectroscopy, artificial intelligence, digital watermarking, and/or other techniques, for waste sorting. A variety of further features and arrangements are also detailed.