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"I hate what they've done to my child...I would never let my own children watch it. "
Vladimir Zworykin, television pioneer ; Talking about an invention in which he played a critical role.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 4998209 | Automatic focusing control of a video camera for industrial and military purposes The brightness and the contrast are optimized in a video image which is used for controlling a manipulator unit. For this purpose, the gain/offset control means of a video camera producing the video image, is controlled using an image control unit in a ma... | 03/05/1991 |
| 4985846 | Acoustical/optical bin picking system A bin picking system for a robot manipulator arm using a combination of a video camera and an acoustical transducer array to locate and drive the manipulator arm to grasp randomly oriented, overlapping parts. The system comprises memory for storing an ima... | 01/15/1991 |
| 4980762 | Method and apparatus for image processing to obtain three dimensional motion and depth An image processing system provides the capability of extracting three dimensional motion information from two dimensional images. The image processing system achieves such extraction by analyzing selected image points. The selected image points correspon... | 12/25/1990 |
| 4893183 | Robotic vision system The present invention pertains to a robotic vision system for identifying the location of objects. The robotic vision system includes a device for recording images, and n elements, where nࣙ2 and is an integer. Each of the n elements is disposed at a pre... | 01/09/1990 |
| 4887223 | Visual navigation system for a mobile robot having capabilities of regenerating of hidden images A manufacturing system has a material handling system that uses free roaming mobile apparatuses that are under the control of a visual navigation system that has the capability of regenerating images that are temporarily obstructed from view of a visual n... | 12/12/1989 |
| 4884216 | Neural network system for adaptive sensory-motor coordination of multijoint robots for single postures A neural-like network system that adaptively controls a visually guided, two-jointed robot arm to reach spot targets in three dimensions. The system learns and maintains visual-motor calibrations by itself, starting with only loosely defined relationships... | 11/28/1989 |
| 4881863 | Apparatus for inspecting wafers An apparatus for inspecting semiconductor, or other types of, wafers is disclosed. The apparatus uses a robot arm to move wafers from an incoming location to an inspection location, and then to an outgoing location. The robot arm may be supported on a flo... | 11/21/1989 |
| 4880992 | Non-contacting measuring system for precision characteristics, particularly of industrial robots A non-contacting measuring system, particularly for industrial robots, for acquiring the position of two coordinate systems, comprising sensors, in particular a stationary coordinate system lying in a measuring plane and of a moving coordinate system, par... | 11/14/1989 |
| 4876728 | Vision system for distinguishing touching parts A practical vision system for controlling the positioning of a robot arm recognizes and locates objects. The vision system processes binary images, but recognizes objects based on boundary features such as lines, arcs, corners and holes instead of "blob f... | 10/24/1989 |
| 4868752 | Boundary detecting method and apparatus for automatic working vehicle A method and apparatus for use with an automatic working vehicle for detecting a boundary between a treated area and an untreated area. A predetermined range of working area including the treated area and the untreated area is photographed by a camera. Im... | 09/19/1989 |
| 4853771 | Robotic vision system A Robotic Vision System for real time operation based on a luminous fiduciary code located upon a robot and an object the robot is to operate on. The luminescent code, when irradiated, locate the position of the object relative to the robot thus allowing ... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4845765 | Process for the automatic recognition of objects liable to overlap The invention relates to a process for the recognition of objects liable to overlap, on the basis of reference images of said objects and the image of the group of said objects. The process consists of coding successive elementary segments, whose ends are... | 07/04/1989 |
| 4843287 | Path contriving system for look-ahead sensor in a robotic control system A look-ahead sensor attached to the its effector end deviates upon each control action upon the robot toward a new position along the seam path. The chord across the seam path from the present effector end to the contemporaneously sensed seam path locatio... | 06/27/1989 |
| 4835450 | Method and system for controlling robot for constructing products A 3-dimensional form of a sample product constituted by a plurality of parts having known forms is measured by imaging the sample product from a plurality of directions. Arrangement data representing the 3-dimensional positions and orientations of the par... | 05/30/1989 |
| 4831548 | Teaching apparatus for robot Disclosed is a teaching apparatus for a robot comprising a graphic display capable of displaying characters, symbols, and figures, a pointing device capable of indicating any point on the display screen, a storage for storing character, symbol, and graphi... | 05/16/1989 |
| 4831316 | Control system for an industrial robot with a foresight function A control system for an industrial robot having a hand which traces a pre-stored standard course defining its position and posture and which has a foresight function. The hand is provided with a tool and a work shape sensor, where the tool and the work sh... | 05/16/1989 |
| 4799267 | Image processing apparatus and processing method In processing topographical information necessary for the traveling of a robot or the like furnished with an automatic traveling function; topography is predicted from the topographical information previously given, so as to prepare a predictive image, a ... | 01/17/1989 |
| 4737845 | Method of loading surface mounted device and an apparatus therefor A method and an apparatus for grasping surface mounted devices such as an IC or the like by the hand of the robot and automatically and accurately loading them onto the contact pattern of the printed board by use of an image processor are disclosed. Accor... | 04/12/1988 |
| 4731853 | Three-dimensional vision system The present invention consists in a three-dimensional vision system comprising a three-dimensional vision sensor which projects slit-like light on an object to-be-handled and which reads out a resulting slit image, an image input portion which controls th... | 03/15/1988 |
| 4727471 | Miniature lightweight digital camera for robotic vision system applications A robot arm with a vision system affixed thereto. A gripper acquires and object at an acquisition site and carries the object to a target site. During travel the position of the object is determined by the vision system viewing the object in two positions... | 02/23/1988 |
| 4663925 | Fruit harvesting robot hand The disposed fruit harvesting robot comprises fruit detecting sensors arranged around an opening of a cylindrical case for taking in fruit. The case also includes at least one additional sensor disposed inside the case.... | 05/12/1987 |
| 4628464 | Robotic system for mounting electrical components A robot including a vision system for providing information to the robot to permit the robot to accurately place electrical components such as integrated circuits on a circuit board is disclosed. The vision system includes a first camera for generating si... | 12/09/1986 |
| 4611292 | Robot vision system A method and an apparatus for detecting the position and posture of an object (5, 9, 10) are characterized by two planar light beams (3a, 3b) alternately projected on the object (5, 9, 10) to be handled and intersection lines (A, B) formed between the two... | 09/09/1986 |
| 4550432 | Image processor using a moment generator In a robotics system, an image processor may use a moment generator in the identification of an object. Image signals may be provided by an image source such as a TV camera. Synchronizing signals may be extracted from the image signals and together with t... | 10/29/1985 |
| 4545067 | Process for automatic image recognition A process for the automatic recognition of an image (I) on the basis of a corresponding reference image, including obtaining, by optoelectronic detection means (C), signals representing both the image to be recognized and the reference image, digitizing (... | 10/01/1985 |
| 4532757 | Robotic fruit harvester A method and system for harvesting fruit, such as citrus fruit. A modularized housing is provided with a mechanism for disposing the housing opposite a picking zone of a tree, with an open side thereof defining a picking aperture. The picking zone is illu... | 08/06/1985 |
| 4443855 | Method of and apparatus for controlling robotic equipment with the aid of mask algorithm image processing techniques A robotic control system and technique is disclosed involving image sensing of an object to be subjected to robotic action, to obtain analog image signals that are converted into binary image signal matrices which, through the use of a mask algorithm imag... | 04/17/1984 |
| 4146924 | System for visually determining position in space and/or orientation in space and apparatus employing same Visual system for determining position in space and/or orientation in three-dimensional space for purposes, for example, of directing or instructing an industrial robot to perform manipulative acts and apparatus employing the visual system. The system inc... | 03/27/1979 |
| 4119900 | Method and system for the automatic orientation and control of a robot The present method and system for the automatic orientation and control of a robot in a space or on a surface to be worked by the robot, for example an area to be vacuum-cleaned or a lawn to be mowed, employs a plurality of distance measuring devices, whi... | 10/10/1978 |
| 3967242 | Automatic working machine An automatic working machine adapted to carry out works such as cutting, filling, tightening and loosening, which comprises a visual unit for detecting, by means of the image information, a plurality of works and obstacles existing on an object, a working... | 06/29/1976 |
