Imaging Tool of doing Partial Contents Inventory
~James Dunn
Often times in industry, retail stores, grocery stores, and even the home, the need to do inventory is time consuming. If a package has an RFID, this simplifies inventory by allowing a wireless connection to a handheld computer to record its presence. However, if a product does not have an RFID or is partially filled, then an incorrect inventory assessment in made.
Imaging technology has come a long way in the past 10 years. Gesture recognition of peoples faces, precise positioning of electronic parts, separation of recyclable trash, are all current technologies.
Take a camera and program a computer to detect barcodes, net wt, percentage of fill height as seen through the side of a container, percentage of fill height as seen through the throat of a container, list of ingredients, guage readings as seen on tanks, and any other uniquely viewable useful information so as to make a general purpose tool.
Then provide a common interface for manufacturers to use this general purpose tool; perhaps the JAUS interface protocol ( http://www.jauswg.org ).
The uses for such a device include, but certainly are not limited to:
- Nutrition Management Software (for institutions or the home)
- Tool Management System (for industry or the home)
- Incinerator Flame Profiling (for waste management)
- Manual Guage Logging (allows operators to cross-reference manual guages with automated sensors (industry)
- ...
