DETECTION OF HEAT TREATED MARKINGS ON A WOODEN PALLET

1 . A pallet inspection system comprising:

a rectangular-shaped frame configured to have a pallet receiving area to receive a wooden pallet to be inspected for having at least one mark indicating that wood in the pallet has been heat treated;

a plurality of cameras carried by said frame to generate images of the wooden pallet in response to the wooden pallet being in the pallet receiving area; and

a processor coupled to said plurality of cameras and configured to receive the images for processing, the processing comprising:

perform object detection on each image to detect if the mark is present,

crop each image having the mark so that an area surrounding the mark within the image is removed,

perform image segmentation on each cropped image so that pixels within the cropped image are classified into regions,

determine readability of the regions in each cropped image based on respective readability criteria thresholds, and

classify the mark in each cropped image as readable based on the mark meeting the respective readability criteria thresholds.

2 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein the classified regions for each cropped image comprise a boundary region, a symbol region, and an alphanumeric region, with the pixels in each region having a respective classification identifier associated therewith.

3 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 2 wherein the boundary region has a rectangular shape with first and second opposing sides, and a divider line extending between one of opposing sides, with the symbol region and the alphanumeric region being enclosed by the boundary region and separated by the divider line.

4 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein the classified regions comprise a boundary region having a classification identifier associated therewith, and wherein determining readability of the boundary region comprises the following:

perform corner point detection to detect corner points;

sample the pixels between the detected corner points;

determine a number of the sampled pixels having the same classification identifier; and

identify the boundary region as being readable based on the determined number of sampled pixels having the same classification identifier exceeding a boundary region threshold.

5 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein the classified regions comprise a symbol region having a classification identifier associated therewith, and wherein determining readability of the symbol region comprises the following:

sample the pixels within the symbol region;

determine a number of the sampled pixels having the same classification identifier; and

identify the symbol region as being readable based on the determined number of sampled pixels having the same classification identifier exceeding a symbol region threshold.

6 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein the classified regions comprise an alphanumeric region having a classification identifier associated therewith, and wherein determining readability of the alphanumeric region comprises the following:

identify the pixels within the alphanumeric region having the same classification identifier;

determine a readability score for the identified pixels, with the readability score being selected within a readability scoring range; and

identify the alphanumeric region as being readable based on the readability score exceeding a readability score threshold.

7 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein the classified regions comprise an alphanumeric region having alphanumeric characters, and wherein said processor is further configured to perform the following for each mark classified as readable:

detect lines within the alphanumeric region, with each line including the alphanumeric characters; and

perform optical character recognition to read the alphanumeric characters in each line.

8 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 7 wherein said processor is further configured to perform the following in response to the wooden pallet having a pair of marks that are each classified as readable:

compare the alphanumeric characters read in one of the marks to the alphanumeric characters read in the other mark; and

classify the wooden pallet as being compliant in response to the respective alphanumeric characters in each mark matching.

9 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of cameras are positioned so that each side of the pallet receiving area has a single camera focused on a portion of a side view of the wooden pallet where the mark is expected to be located.

10 . The pallet inspection system according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of cameras are positioned so that each side of the pallet receiving area has a pair of cameras, with the pair of cameras providing overlapping images of an entire side view of the wooden pallet.

11 . A method for detecting heat treated marking on a wooden pallet comprising:

generating images of the wooden pallet;

performing object detection on each image to detect if a mark is present;

cropping each image having the mark so that an area surrounding the mark within the image is removed;

performing image segmentation on each cropped image so that pixels within the cropped image are classified into regions;

determining readability of the regions in each cropped image based on respective readability criteria thresholds; and

classifying the mark in each cropped image as readable based on the mark meeting the respective readability criteria thresholds.

12 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the classified regions for each cropped image comprise a boundary region, a symbol region, and an alphanumeric region, with the pixels in each region having a respective classification identifier associated therewith.

13 . The method according to claim 12 wherein the boundary region has a rectangular shape with first and second opposing sides, and a divider line extending between one of opposing sides, with the symbol region and the alphanumeric region being enclosed by the boundary region and separated by the divider line.

14 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the classified regions comprise a boundary region having a classification identifier associated therewith, and wherein determining readability of the boundary region comprises the following:

performing corner point detection to detect corner points;

sampling the pixels between the detected corner points;

determining a number of the sampled pixels having the same classification identifier; and

identifying the boundary region as being readable based on the determined number of sampled pixels having the same classification identifier exceeding a boundary region threshold.

15 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the classified regions comprise a symbol region having a classification identifier associated therewith, and wherein determining readability of the symbol region comprises the following:

sampling the pixels within the symbol region;

determining a number of the sampled pixels having the same classification identifier; and

identifying the symbol region as being readable based on the determined number of sampled pixels having the same classification identifier exceeding a symbol region threshold.

16 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the classified regions comprise an alphanumeric region having a classification identifier associated therewith, and wherein determining readability of the alphanumeric region comprises the following:

identifying the pixels within the alphanumeric region having the same classification identifier;

determining a readability score for the identified pixels, with the readability score being selected within a readability scoring range; and

identifying the alphanumeric region as being readable based on the readability score exceeding a readability score threshold.

17 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the classified regions comprise an alphanumeric region having alphanumeric characters, and further comprising the following for each mark classified as readable:

detecting lines within the alphanumeric region, with each line including alphanumeric characters; and

performing optical character recognition to read the alphanumeric characters in each line.

18 . The method according to claim 17 further comprising the following in response to the wooden pallet having a pair of marks that are each classified as readable:

comparing the alphanumeric characters read in one of the marks to the alphanumeric characters read in the other mark; and

classifying the wooden pallet as being compliant in response to the respective alphanumeric characters in each mark matching.

19 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the wooden pallet is received in a pallet receiving area, and wherein each side of the pallet receiving area has a single camera focused on a portion of a side view of the wooden pallet where the mark is expected to be located.

20 . The method according to claim 11 wherein the wooden pallet is received in a pallet receiving area, and wherein each side of the pallet receiving area has a pair of cameras, with the pair of cameras providing overlapping images of an entire side view of the wooden pallet.