Abstract: A segment detection system automatically, contactlessly, rapidly, and precisely detects a segment along an edge, such as a boundary, of an object in a digitized image. The segment detection system includes an imager for capturing an image of an object and converting the image into an electrical signal. A computer is connected to the camera for receiving the electrical signal. A machine vision system is associated with the computer and is adapted to analyze the image. A segment detection program is disposed in the computer for driving the computer and the machine vision system in accordance with the present invention. The segment detection program includes an initialization subroutine and a matching subroutine. The initialization subroutine configures the program to search for a particular target polynomial equation. The matching subroutine derives a test polynomial equation that represents a test segment from a test edge of the object based upon an analysis of the image.

Abstract: A surface analysis system can contactlessly, automatically, and rapidly detect, classify, and evaluate a surface of an object, particularly, an optical fiber end face, for discontinuities to derive a single pass/fail conclusion regarding the surface. The surface analysis system has a scope for capturing an image of the end face. A computer is connected to the scope. A machine vision system is associated with the computer for receiving the image. A surface analysis program is associated with the computer for driving the machine vision system. The program searches for any discontinuities in the image by analyzing each pixel and a corresponding pixel structure of pixels to determine whether a discontinuity resides at each pixel. Discontinuities are classified as one of the following: binary thresholds, local gradients, and directional gradients. The pixel structure includes a plurality of pixels that were previously analyzed.