JPH08158221A - Method for carrying out image treatment of tow band for filter and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To objectively determine uniformity of thickness and opening conditions of tow band. CONSTITUTION: The image of tow band is photographed by television camera at a prescribed position just before tow band wound up by a tow band winder for filter enters a tow treating machine and arbitrary scanning line of photographed image is taken in at a prescribed time interval and image signal exhibiting data of intensity of illumination in the width direction of tow band is taken out and parameter for displaying the state of tow band from the data of brightness of tow in the width direction of tow band is introduced and uniformity of thickness of tow band and opening state are determined and evaluated according to the correlation between tow disperse coefficient and dark part generating area.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a uniform tow band thickness observed immediately before a tow band wound by a filter tow band winder enters a tow processing machine in a process of manufacturing a filter used for a filter such as a cigarette. The present invention relates to an image processing device for a tow band for a filter for quantifying the property and the opened state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the state of the tow band in thickness and the opened state have been judged by visually comparing the tow band with a limit sample of a photograph immediately before the tow band enters the opening machine.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional determination, it is difficult to quantify the state of the thickness because the object to be measured is a dynamic image and there is a change over time. Met. Moreover, since there are many factors that are affected by the subjectivity of the judge, there is a problem that individual differences are included. The present invention solves such a conventional problem, and provides a towband image processing method for objectively quantifying the thickness state and the fiber opening state of the towband, and an apparatus for carrying out this method. The purpose is to do.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image processing method for a tow band for a filter according to the present invention provides an image of the tow band immediately before the tow band wound by the tow band winder for a filter enters the tow band. A CCD camera is used to take a picture at a predetermined position, an arbitrary scanning line of the photographed image is taken in at a predetermined time interval, and a video signal indicating information on the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band is taken out,
It is characterized in that the thickness uniformity of the tow band is quantified based on this brightness information.

Further, the quantification is characterized in that the thickness uniformity is quantified based on the average contrast ratio in the width direction of the tow band. Immediately before the tow band rolled up by the filter tow band winder enters the tow processing machine, the tow band image is taken with a CCD camera at a predetermined position, and any scanning line of the taken image is taken at a predetermined time interval. It is characterized by taking in and quantifying the opened state of the tow band based on the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band. Further, it is characterized in that the frequency of the dark portion width of the scanning line corresponding to each of a predetermined number of steps is measured, and the opened state of the tow band is quantified based on the frequency of occurrence of the dark portion width. Further, the number of intersections where the high-frequency component waveform of the scanning line intersects a zero cross point is divided by the minimum dark part width occurrence frequency of the dark part width to quantify the degree of dispersion in the tow band direction of the dark part. .

Further, the image processing device for a tow band for a filter of the present invention is a CCD camera for photographing a tow band image at a predetermined position immediately before the tow band wound by the tow band winding device for a filter enters the tow processor. A sampling circuit that captures an arbitrary scan line of an image captured by a CCD camera at predetermined time intervals, an A / D converter that captures an analog signal from this sampling circuit and converts it into a digital signal, and this A / D conversion Based on the information of the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band which is the output signal of the vessel,
And a calculation means for quantifying the thickness uniformity of the toe band. Further, the arithmetic means is characterized in that the thickness uniformity is quantified based on the average contrast ratio in the width direction of the tow band. Also,
It is characterized in that the calculating means quantifies the thickness uniformity based on the frequency of occurrence of the dark part width in the width direction of the tow band.

Further, the arithmetic means is characterized in that the thickness uniformity is quantified based on the frequency of occurrence of the dark part position in the width direction of the toe band. Further, immediately before the tow band wound by the filter tow band winder enters the tow processing machine, a CCD camera that shoots an image of the tow band at a predetermined position and an arbitrary scanning line of an image shot by this CCD camera are predetermined. Based on the sampling circuit that captures at the time interval of, the A / D converter that captures the analog signal from this sampling circuit and converts it into a digital signal, and the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band that is the output signal of this A / D converter. , And a calculation means for quantifying the opened state of the tow band. Also,
It is characterized in that the calculating means normalizes the opened state of the tow based on the width of the dark part divided into 6 stages in the width direction of the tow band.

Further, the arithmetic means is characterized in that the spread state of the tow is quantified based on the toe dispersion coefficient in the width direction of the tow band. Further, the arithmetic means is characterized in that the state of cracking of the tow is quantified based on the dark area occurrence area in the width direction of the tow band. Further, the arithmetic means is characterized in quantifying the properties of the tow band based on the relationship between the tow dispersion coefficient and the dark area occurrence area.

In the thickness analysis and image processing method of the spread state of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure,
An image showing the state of the tow band taken by a television camera such as a small CCD camera is composed of, for example, an image of 30 frames per second, and one screen is composed of 525 scanning lines. Any one of these scan lines is taken out at any time interval and taken into a digital storage oscilloscope.

The luminance signal of this scanning line contains information on the brightness in the width direction of the tow band rolled up from the tow bale, and therefore the state of this luminance signal has a close correlation with the thickness of the tow band. That is, the bright part of the luminance signal shows a state where many fibers of the tow are gathered, and the dark part shows a part having few fibers or a thin part. In the present invention, the luminance signal is captured by the digital storage oscilloscope, converted from an analog signal to a digital signal, and then captured by the arithmetic means.

The calculating means analyzes the information on the brightness of the tow band in the width direction based on the captured digital brightness signal, and according to the predetermined correlation between the state of the brightness signal and the thickness of the toe band, the thickness uniformity is calculated. Is quantified. In addition, the calculation means, based on the captured digital brightness signal, the dark part indicates a part with few transitions. Therefore, for the dark part, the intensity of the dark part, that is, the intensity of the decrease in the brightness level is calculated from the collected data from the threshold value. The value obtained by multiplying the intensity of the dark part by its width is taken as the state of the generated dark part. Also,
In the part where the level of the luminance signal is low, the part where the small dark part width is evenly generated shows that the fibers of the tow band are evenly spread and the fibers are evenly distributed in the tow band width direction. The part where the part and the bright part are extremely unevenly distributed indicates that the fibers of the tow are unevenly spread.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a tow band image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.
Reference numeral 11 indicates a small CCD camera (television camera),
The camera 11 is set at a position just before the tow band wound by the filter tow band winder enters the tow processing machine, and at a position where an arbitrary surface of the continuously running tow band can be photographed. The image taken by the television camera 11 is sent to the next sampling circuit 12.

The sampling circuit 12 DC-clamps the analog image signal sent from the television camera 11 and sends it to the next digital storage oscilloscope 13, and also generates a trigger signal for determining the timing for selecting an arbitrary scanning line. Then, this is supplied to the parallel interface 14.

In the digital storage oscilloscope 13, the scanning lines arbitrarily sampled by the sampling circuit 12 are sequentially converted into analog signals by the A / D converter, and sent to the arithmetic means 16 through the GPIB interface 15. The calculation means 16 controls software 161 for controlling its own operation, and analysis software 162 for quantifying the tow band thickness uniformity, the degree of fiber dispersion, and the dark area distribution according to predetermined parameters.
Based on this, predetermined processing is performed.

Reference numeral 17 indicates a hard disk storage device for storing the information of the calculating means 16, and reference numeral 18 indicates an evaluation result output from the calculating means 16.

Next, the operation of the tow band thickness analyzing apparatus of the present invention will be described. The sampling circuit 1 is selected from the 525 scanning lines of the video signal showing the state of the tow band, which is the object to be measured, taken by the television camera 11.
An arbitrary one is taken out at an arbitrary time interval by 2 and sequentially sent to the digital storage oscilloscope 13. The extracted luminance signal of the scanning line includes information on the brightness of the measured filter tow in the width direction. That is, a bright part is a part where many fibers are gathered and a dark part is a part where there are few fibers.

The signal containing such brightness information is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter of the digital storage oscilloscope 13, and the GPIB interface 1
It is sent to the calculation means 16 via 5. The luminance signal of the scanning line is divided into, for example, about 500 pixels in the width direction of the tow band, and the brightness at each point is divided into 64 steps.
The timing of these signals is controlled by a trigger signal sent from the sampling circuit 12 via the parallel interface 14.

The calculating means 16 analyzes the captured data by the analysis software 162 described later, digitizes the thickness uniformity, compares this with a preset numerical value, and sets the result as the evaluation result 18. Output.

FIG. 2 shows the correlation between the luminance signal included in the scanning line and the state of the tow band. The luminance signal in FIG. 2 represents the lightness and darkness of the scanning line that scans the entire tow band width W. In this example, the luminance signal includes three dark portions (defective portions in which there are few fibers and the tow band is thin or there are no fibers and becomes a split) p1, p2, and p3, and the widths of the dark portions are w1 and w2, respectively. , W3. The brightness ratio of this luminance signal is represented by the brightness ratio (BD) = (w1 + w2 + w3) / W.

Further, when the measurement points are t0, t1, ..., The average light / dark ratio, the dark part width occurrence frequency, and the dark part position occurrence frequency are expressed by the following equations. Average contrast ratio = {(BD) _t0 + (BD) _t1 + (BD) _t2
..} / N (N: number of sampling times) dark part width occurrence frequency = {(w1, w2, w3) _t0 , (w1,
w2, w3 ...) _t1 , ...} Dark part position occurrence frequency = {(p1, p2, p3) _t0 , (p
, P2, p3 ...) _t1 , ...} The dark part width occurrence frequency is classified into 6 levels and displayed in frequency, and the dark part position occurrence frequency is five zones z1 to z5.
The frequency is divided and displayed.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the relationship between the position in the tow band width direction and the brightness of the luminance signal taken into the digital storage oscilloscope 13. FIG. 4 shows an example of changes over time when the brightness / darkness ratio (BD) of the luminance signal is continuously measured 50 times. It can be seen that the thickness uniformity of the tow band varies considerably when viewed in the longitudinal direction.

FIG. 5 is a diagram comparing the average contrast ratio with the quality determination level by visual inspection. As is clear from this figure, the average brightness-darkness ratio increases as the degree of failure increases, and this parameter is an important factor for quality determination.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the analysis result of the dark portion width and the dark portion width occurrence frequency. The smaller the dark part width is, the more the number is detected. Moreover, although the number of dark areas with a large width is small, the number of dark areas with a large width tends to increase as the number of defective products increases.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the analysis result of the dark part position and the dark part width occurrence frequency. In the case of this tow band, it indicates that the frequency of detecting the defective portion at the left end is low.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. In FIG. 8 showing the relationship between the luminance signal included in the scanning line and the correlation between the tow band states, the dark areas p1, p2, p
3, the dark part widths w1, w2, and w3, and the dark part depth s
If the product of 1, s2, and s3 is the dark area occurrence area,
This is expressed by the following formula. Dark area occurrence area = {(w1 × s1, w2 × s2, w3 × s
3) _t0 , (w1 × s1, w2 × s2, w3 × s3) _t2 ,
..} The larger the numerical value of the dark area generation area, the larger the dark area in the tow band direction.

FIG. 9 shows the relationship between the position in the tow band width direction and the brightness of the luminance signal taken into the digital storage oscilloscope 13. Low-frequency component waveform data is obtained from the measured waveform data by the moving average method. By taking the difference between the measured waveform data and the low frequency component waveform data, high frequency component waveform data is obtained. The number of intersections between the high frequency component waveform data and the brightness (relative value) of 0, that is, the number of zero cross points is the number of zero cross points. In the present invention, a value obtained by dividing the number of zero cross points by the frequency of occurrence of the minimum dark space width in any of the six stages of the dark space width described above is defined as a "toe dispersion coefficient". It is shown by the formula. Toe dispersion coefficient = {number of zero cross points} / {Minimum dark area width occurrence frequency} This toe dispersion coefficient indicates how much the minimum dark area width is distributed. The larger this value, the finer the toe band direction. It indicates that the dark and tow bands are widespread.

FIG. 10 shows the relationship between the tow dispersion coefficient and the dark area occurrence area in comparison with the judgment level by visual inspection.
As is clear from this figure, as the tow dispersion coefficient increases and as the dark part generation area decreases, the open state of the tow band is better, and conversely, the tow dispersion coefficient is smaller and the dark part generation area increases. It can be seen that the opened state of the tow band is poorer as it becomes. These parameters are important factors by which the state of the tow band can be determined in terms of the spread of the tow band and the frequency of occurrence of dark areas.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the image taken by the television camera of the state of the tow band is immediately analyzed by the arithmetic means while the tow band hoist is in operation, so that the tow band is removed. The thickness uniformity can be quantitatively determined in real time while being rolled up. Further, there is an advantage that the state of the tow band can be quantitatively determined by two parameters, that is, the dark part occurrence state and the toe spread.

Further, by properly setting the number of samplings and the interval thereof, it is possible to analyze a state of a certain thickness at an arbitrary point on the tow band, a certain period of time, or various states of a certain length. Further, it is possible to quantify the change in thickness uniformity over time.

Moreover, the analysis contents can be carried out from various points of view by changing the setting of the analysis software, and the thickness uniformity of the tow band can be clearly and accurately determined.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing a correlation between a luminance signal included in a scanning line and a tow band state.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an example of the relationship between the position in the tow band width direction and the brightness of the luminance signal captured by the digital storage oscilloscope.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing an example of a change with time when the contrast ratio of a luminance signal is continuously measured 50 times.

FIG. 5 is a graph comparing an average contrast ratio with a quality determination level by visual inspection.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing an example of an analysis result of a dark portion width and a dark portion width occurrence frequency.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing an example of an analysis result of a dark part position and a dark part width occurrence frequency.

FIG. 8 is a graph showing an example of the relationship between the position in the tow band width direction and the brightness of the luminance signal captured by the digital storage oscilloscope.

FIG. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between the position in the tow band width direction of the brightness signal captured by the digital storage oscilloscope, and the brightness, high frequency component, and low frequency component.

FIG. 10 is a graph comparing the relationship between the tow dispersion coefficient and the dark area occurrence area and the quality determination level by visual inspection.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 TV Camera 12 Sampling Circuit 13 Digital Storage Oscilloscope 14 Parallel Interface 15 GPIB Interface 16 Computing Means 161 Control Software 162 Analysis Software 17 Hard Disk 18 Evaluation Results

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A tow band image taken at a predetermined position with a CCD camera immediately before a tow band wound by a filter tow band winder enters a tow processing machine, and an arbitrary scanning line of the taken image is displayed. Captured at a predetermined time interval, a video signal indicating information on the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band is taken out, and based on this brightness information, the thickness uniformity of the tow band is quantified. Image processing method. 2. The image processing method for a tow band for a filter according to claim 1, wherein the quantification is quantification of thickness uniformity based on an average contrast ratio in the width direction of the tow band. 3. A tow band image taken by a CCD camera at a predetermined position immediately before the tow band wound by the filter tow band winder enters the tow processing machine, and an arbitrary scanning line of the taken image is set at a predetermined position. An image processing method of a tow band for a filter, which is characterized by quantifying the opened state of the tow band based on the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band by taking in at time intervals. 4. The frequency at which the dark portion width of the scanning line corresponds to each of a predetermined number of predetermined steps is measured, and the spread state of the tow band is quantified based on the dark portion width occurrence frequency. The image processing method of the filter tow band according to claim 3. 5. The quantification of the degree of dispersion of the dark part in the tow band direction is performed by dividing the number of intersections at which the high-frequency component waveform of the scanning line intersects a zero cross point by the minimum dark part width occurrence frequency of the dark part width. The image processing method of the tow band for filters according to claim 4. 6. A CCD camera for photographing the image of the tow band at a predetermined position immediately before the tow band wound by the filter tow band winding machine enters the tow processing machine, and an arbitrary scanning of the image photographed by the CCD camera. A sampling circuit that takes in a line at a predetermined time interval, an A / D converter that takes in an analog signal from this sampling circuit and converts it into a digital signal, and a tow band width direction of an output signal of this A / D converter Based on illuminance information,
An image processing device for a tow band for a filter, comprising: an arithmetic means for quantifying the thickness uniformity of the tow band. 7. The image processing device for a tow band for a filter according to claim 6, wherein the calculating means quantifies the thickness uniformity based on an average contrast ratio in the width direction of the tow band. 8. The image processing device for a tow band for a filter according to claim 6, wherein the calculation means quantifies the thickness uniformity based on the frequency of occurrence of the dark part width in the width direction of the tow band. . 9. The image processing device for a tow band for a filter according to claim 6, wherein the calculation means quantifies the thickness uniformity based on the frequency of occurrence of the dark position in the width direction of the tow band. . 10. A CCD camera for taking an image of the tow band at a predetermined position immediately before the tow band wound by the filter tow band winder enters the tow processing machine,
A sampling circuit that takes in arbitrary scanning lines of an image taken by this CCD camera at predetermined time intervals, an A / D converter that takes in an analog signal from this sampling circuit and converts it into a digital signal, and this A / D An image processing device for a tow band for a filter, comprising: an arithmetic means for quantifying the opened state of the tow band based on the illuminance in the width direction of the tow band which is an output signal of the converter. 11. The calculating means quantifies the opened state of the tow based on the width of the dark part in each of 6 stages in the width direction of the tow band.
The towband image processing device for filters according to 0. 12. The image processing device for a tow band for a filter according to claim 10, wherein the calculation means quantifies the spread state of the tow based on the toe dispersion coefficient in the width direction of the tow band. . 13. The image processing of the tow band for a filter according to claim 10, wherein the calculation means quantifies the state of cracking of the tow based on the dark area occurrence area in the width direction of the tow band. apparatus. 14. The filter towband image processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the calculation means quantifies the properties of the towband based on the relationship between the tow dispersion coefficient and the dark area occurrence area. .