Patents by Inventor Stephen Peter Woodall

Stephen Peter Woodall has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6275603
    Abstract: This invention provides a method and apparatus (100) for detecting small glass particles (12) in bottles (1) filled with beer (10). The beer (10) is caused to rotate with respect to the bottle (1), and successive images are obtained from the bottle by means of a CCD-camera (40) which is arranged such that its optical axis (41) makes an angle &agr; of about 135° with the axis (13) of the bottle (1), which is illuminated from below. The successive images are subtracted from each other to detect refracted light emanating from glass particles. These measurements are repeated a plurality of times. The invention thus offers an improvement in sensitivity and reliability of a detecting method. An apparatus (100) comprises a carousel (103) with a plurality of cameras dedicated to a single bottle. A system is described to reduce costs by having eight cameras share one image processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2001
    Assignee: Heineken Technical Services B.V.
    Inventors: Anthony James Cronshaw, Christopher James Hodges, Mark Robson Humphries, David Livingstone, Stephen Peter Woodall, Bernardus Cornelis Johannes Landman