John L Moran

US Patent:

40821889, Apr 4, 1978

Filed:

Jun 23, 1976

Appl. No.:

5/698987

Inventors:

William Charles Grimmell - Lake Hiawatha NJ
Gilbert Carl Kaetzel - Wayne NJ
John Milton Moran - Nazareth PA
George Michael Zanko - Montville NJ

Assignee:

Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. - Nutley NJ

International Classification:

B07C 5342

US Classification:

209 73

Abstract:

Method and apparatus for high-speed automatic inspection and processing of large numbers of solid discrete particular objects such as multicolored capsule dose forms in regard to color and/or defect detection, in which virtually all unacceptable material is isolated and an accurate running and total count of acceptable material is provided. The objects are transported in a number of channels past respective optical heads comprising an electro-optics system, the transport mechanism being arranged to provide signals representative of relative object location. One or more rotary transport drums communicating with the front end of the transport mechanism are also provided to enable additional viewing of the capsules in either or both "end-on" orientations, in order to effect a more complete body of information for defect detection. The electro-optics system is comprised operatively of separate color recognition and shape inspection subsystems. The color and shape signature information of an object is obtained by sampling photodetector outputs in dependence on the object position information from the transport mechanism and also the sensed specular peak by a computer-controlled arrangement.

US Patent:

39912698, Nov 9, 1976

Filed:

Sep 18, 1975

Appl. No.:

5/614435

Inventors:

Earl Franklin Brown - Piscataway NJ
John Francis Moran - Holmdel NJ

Assignee:

Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H03K 1322

US Classification:

178 68

Abstract:

A pulse code modulator utilizes a predetermined bit, which is the least significant bit in each code group, to indicate the polarity of the signal amplitude sample whose magnitude is represented by the immediately succeeding code group. Since variations in magnitude change the value of the predetermined bit in a more or less random fashion and the same is true of the polarity of the samples to be encoded, in the course of the encoding process there is a relatively high probability of occasions when the magnitude and polarity will call for the same value of bit. When there is a disagreement in bit value for the magnitude and polarity, the predetermined bit in each code group is forced to indicate the correct polarity. Additional bits in each of these code groups may also be changed to provide the most accurate magnitude information with the corrected polarity information.