1. A shrink film applying apparatus comprising:
an article feed for feeding articles for shrink-wrapping at line pressure;
a wrapping conveyor driven at a wrapping speed through a wrapping zone, the wrapping conveyor receiving articles from the article feed;
a first film supply supplying a first film to the wrapping zone, the first film being fed to a position above the wrapping conveyor and beneath the articles;
a second film supply supplying a second film to the wrapping zone, the second film being fed to a position above the first film and the articles;
a plurality of flight bars and a plurality of flight bar drives, each flight bar individually driven in a path at a variable speed by a respective one of the flight bar drives, the second film being sequentially pulled down between selected articles by the flight bars so as to form loops of the second film in the wrapping zone between adjacent flight bars, each loop of the second film having a contact point adjacent the respective flight bar contacting the first film; and
a sealing mechanism within the wrapping zone for sealing the first film to the second film at the contact points to form a circumferential film unit substantially surrounding grouped articles within each loop of second film and a corresponding portion of the first film, the film unit being shrinkable about the grouped articles to form a package.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wrapping conveyor includes a plurality of independent slats and a track, the slats being driven by a drive along the track in a path, each of the slats being movable relative to adjacent slats along the path.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the flight bars each include alignment elements configured to fit between adjacent slats in the wrapping conveyor, the alignment elements self-adjustably moving certain of the slats relative to each other to an extent necessary for the alignment elements to fit between the slats as the flight bars approach the wrapping conveyor.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the flight bars include two plates mounted so as to be movable relative to each other in a direction of travel, the flight bars contacting a frame of the shrink film applying assembly in the wrapping zone to move apart the two plates, the alignment elements moving apart adjacent slats of the wrapping conveyor when the plates of the flight bars move apart.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the sealing mechanism is disposed beneath the wrapping conveyor, the sealing mechanism proving heat to the wrapping zone to seal the first film to the second film.
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the sealing mechanism provides heat at least when the two plates of the flight bars and the adjacent slats are moved apart.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, further including a controller, the controller controlling the flight bar drives, a wrapping conveyor drive, and a sealing mechanism drive so that the flight bars, the wrapping conveyor and the sealing mechanism operate in synchronicity.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller causes the wrapping conveyor to be driven at a constant speed and the flight bars and sealing mechanism to be driven at a constant speed within at least a portion of the wrapping zone.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the controller causes the flight bars and sealing mechanism to be driven at a variable speed along at least a portion of their respective travel.
10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sealing mechanism and flight bars cooperate to separate adjacent respective film units and grouped articles within the wrapping zone.
11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the flight bars include two plates mounted so as to be movable relative to each other in a direction of travel, the flight bars contacting a frame of the shrink film applying apparatus in the wrapping zone to move apart the two plates, thereby separating the adjacent film units and grouped articles.
12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wrapping conveyor includes compression spring elements between adjacent slats.
13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the fight bar drives includes a variable speed servo-motor for driving a chain, a respective one of the flight bars being attached to each chain.
14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the apparatus includes at least four of the flight bars and flight bar drives.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for displaying video images, the method comprising:
receiving a first digital video signal corresponding to a captured wide-angle video image of an environment, said wide-angle video image having a field of view distorted relative to human perception and being navigable for selecting regions of the wide-angle video image to display;
collecting data points within the environment by collecting information relating to positions of a plurality of objects located within the environment;
storing the collected data points as correlation data in a storage device;
selecting an object of interest within the wide-angle field of view by performing a navigation of the wide-angle video image and selecting, based on a user input, the object of interest;
processing the first digital video signal to create a perspectively corrected video image corresponding to the selected object of interest;
receiving a second digital video signal corresponding to a second video image captured by a pan-tilt-zoom video camera, the second video image providing a view corresponding to the selected object of interest, the second video image further having been interpolated with the correlation data to correct parallax effects and correctly orient the pan-tilt-zoom video camera to the selected object of interest; and
contemporaneously displaying the perspectively corrected video image, and the second video image.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is received through a pointing device.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the field of view of the wide-angle video image has an immersive field of view.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of contemporaneously displaying is performed on a single viewing device.
5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:
processing the first digital video signal to create an equirectangular video image,
wherein the step of contemporaneously displaying further comprises contemporaneously displaying: the equirectangular video image.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
receiving user input relative the displayed equirectangular video image indicating the object of interest within the environment, the user input being a mouse click on the object of interest within the video image of the environment;
orienting the pan-tilt-zoom video camera to capture a video image corresponding to the object of interest indicated by the user input relative to the displayed equirectangular video image.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein the field of view of the wide-angle video image is an immersive field of view.
8. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of contemporaneously displaying is performed on a single viewing device.
9. A method for displaying video images, the method comprising:
displaying an equirectangular video image of an environment to a user;
collecting data points within the environment by collecting information relating to positions of a plurality of objects located within the environment;
storing the collected data points as correlation data in a storage device;
receiving user input performing navigation operations on the equirectangular video image selecting an object of interest within the environment relative to the displayed equirectangular video;
orienting a pan-tilt-zoom video camera to capture a video image corresponding to the object of interest indicated by the user input, the orientation of the pan-tilt-zoom video camera being determined by interpolating the selected object of interest with the correlation data to obtain parallax corrected orientation of the camera; and
displaying the captured video image obtained by the oriented pan-tilt-zoom video camera.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user input is received through a pointing device.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user moves the pointing device and selects the object of interest on the displayed equirectangular video image.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein the received user input further indicates a selected field of view, and the step of orienting further comprises adjusting the level of zoom of the pan-tilt-zoom video camera to correspond to the selected field of view.
13. A method for displaying video images, the method comprising:
displaying a navigable perspectively corrected immersive video image of an environment to a user;
collecting data points within the environment by collecting information relating to positions of a plurality of objects located within the environment;
storing the collected data points as correlation data in a storage device;
receiving user input navigating the displayed navigable perspectively corrected immersive video image to select an object of interest within the environment;
orienting a pan-tilt-zoom video camera to capture a video image corresponding to the object of interest indicated by the user input, the orientation of the pan-tilt-zoom video camera being determined by interpolating the selected object of interest with the correlation data to obtain parallax corrected orientation of the camera; and
displaying the captured video image obtained by the oriented pan-tilt-zoom video camera.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user input is received through a pointing device.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user moves the pointing device and selects the object of interest on the displayed equirectangular video image.