1. A method for inspecting a surface of an article through an image thereof, comprising the steps of:
photographing a surface to be inspected of said article with a CCD camera;
selecting two arbitrary pixels in point-symmetry or line symmetry from among pixels showing the surface to be inspected in the image; and
comparing the two pixels to each other to inspect the surface of said article.
2. The inspection method as set forth in claim 1, wherein all of the pixels showing the surface to be inspected are compared.
3. The inspection method as set forth in claim 2, wherein
brightnesses of the two selected pixels are compared.
4. The inspection method as set forth in claim 3, wherein
a ratio between the brightnesses of the two selected pixels is obtained, and when a predetermined number of pixels having ratios outside a predetermined range exist continuously, a state of the surface of said article is judged to be defective.
5. The inspection method as set forth in claim 1, wherein
when the surface to be inspected of said article is photographed with the CCD camera, the surface to be inspected is illuminated by a light source.
6. A system for inspecting a surface of an article through an image thereof, comprising:
a light source for illuminating a surface to be inspected of said article;
a CCD camera for photographing the surface to be inspected of said article; and
a controller for selecting two arbitrary pixels in point-symmetry or line symmetry from among pixels showing the surface to be inspected in the photographed image and comparing the two pixels to each other to inspect the surface of said article.
7. The inspection system as set forth in claim 6, further comprising:
a sorter for sorting said articles in accordance with inspection results by said controller.
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 of self-heating a beverage urn with beverage contained within a liner when removed from any source of power, comprising the steps of:
heating a heat pack contained within the urn and in thermal communication with the liner at a first location where hot beverage is added to the liner using an electrical power available for heating the heat pack at the first location;
moving the urn to a second location remote from the first location after the hot beverage has been added; and
heating the beverage at the remote location solely by the step of conveying heat from the heat pack to the liner and the hot beverage contained within the liner.
2. The method of claim 1 in which the step of heating the heat pack includes only one of the steps of (a) providing an electrical heating element with electrical power, and (b) radiating the heat pack with microwave radiant energy.
3. The method of claim 2 in which the step of heating is actuated automatically when the urn is placed into an operative location relative to a brewer to receive freshly brewed beverage into the liner.
4. The method of claim 3 in which the step of heating is controlled automatically by a controller of the brewer.
5. The method of claim 2 in which the step of heating is performed by applying electrical power to the electrical heating element when the electrical heating element is located externally of the heat pack and heat is conveyed to the heat pack by conduction from the heating element to the heat pack.
6. The method of claim 2 in which the step of heating is performed by applying electrical power to the electrical heating element when the electrical heating element is located within the heat pack.
7. The method of claim 1 in which the heat pack is one of
(a) a ceramic, (b) high density liquids within a liquid impervious case, (c) a phase-change material, and (d) a zeolite-like material.
8. The method of claim 1 in which the
step of heating the heat pack is performed relatively quickly, and
the step of conveying heat from the heat pack to the beverage is performed relatively slowly.
9. The method of claim 1 in which the step of conveying includes the step of hydrating the phase change material that performs to create an exothermic phase change of the material after the material has been heated.
10. The method of claim 1 in which
the step of conveying includes the step of hydrating a zeolite-like material when in a dehydrated form, and
the step of heating results in dehydrating the zeolite-like material to change it to a dehydrated form.
11. The method of claim 1 in which the step of heating includes directly heating a core of a ceramic sandwich having a ceramic outer layer enveloping the core and having a thermal conductivity greater than that of the ceramic outer layer.
12. The method of claim 11 in which the core is an electrical heating element contained within the ceramic outer enveloping layer.
13. The method of claim 11 in which the core is a ceramic material having a thermal characteristic relative to the ceramic material of the outer layer enabling the core to be heated relatively rapidly compared to the ceramic material of the outer layer.
14. The method of claim 13 in which
the step of heating includes the step of relatively rapidly heating the core, and
the step of conveying includes the step of relatively slowly conveying heat from the core through the outer layer to the beverage.
15. The method of claim 1 including the step of selectively heating the heat pack to different temperatures associated with different quantities of hot beverage being added to the liner.
16. The method of claim 15 in which
the different quantities are added to the liner in response to manual selections at a beverage providing apparatus of different quantities of beverage, and
the beverage providing apparatus automatically heats the heat pack to the different temperatures in response to the manual selections of the associated quantities of beverage while the selected quantity is being added to the liner.
17. The method of claim 15 in which the different temperatures are achieved by performing one of the steps of (a) changing the duration that electrical power is provided to a heat source having a fixed heat output, and (2) changing the heat output during a heating period of fixed duration.
18. A method of maintaining temperature of a hot beverage contained within a liner of a beverage urn when removed from any source of power, comprising the steps of:
brewing hot beverage directly into the beverage urn with a hot beverage brewer;
heating a heat pack when separated from the urn using an electrical power source adjacent the brewer;
disconnecting electrical power from the electrical power source and installing the heat pack into a heat pack compartment within the urn and in thermal communication with the liner after the heat pack has been heated to a preselected temperature;
moving the urn to a serving location; and
heating the beverage solely by the step of conveying heat from the heat pack to the hot beverage contained within the urn.
19. The method of claim 18 in which the step of heating is performed at a first location where hot beverage is added to the liner using an electrical power available for heating the heat pack at the first location.
20. The method of claim 19 including the step of
moving the urn to a second location remote from the first location after the hot beverage has been added, and in which
the step of heating the beverage is performed at the second location.
21. The method of claim 19 in which the step of heating the heat pack includes only one of the steps of (a) providing an electrical heating element with electrical power, and (b) radiating the heat pack with microwave radiant energy.
22. The method of claim 21 in which the step of heating is performed by applying electrical power to the electrical heating element when the electrical heating element is located within the heat pack.
23. The method of claim 18 in which the heat pack is one of
(a) a ceramic, (b) high density liquids within a liquid impervious case, (c) a phase-change material, and (d) a zeolite-like material.
24. The method of claim 18 in which the step of heating the heat pack is performed relatively quickly and the step of coveying heat from the heat pack to the beverage is performed relatively slowly.
25. The method of claim 18 in which the step of conveying includes the step of hydrating the phase change material that performs to create an exothermic phase change of the material after the material has been heated.
26. The method of claim 18 in which the step of conveying includes the step of hydrating a zeolite-like material when in a dehydrated form and the step of heating results in dehydrating the zeolite-like material to change it to a dehydrated form.
27. The method of claim 18 in which the step of heating includes directly heating a core of a ceramic sandwich having a ceramic outer layer enveloping the core and having a thermal conductivity greater than that of the ceramic outer layer.
28. The method of claim 27 in which the core is an electrical heating element contained within the ceramic outer enveloping layer.
29. The method of claim 27 in which the core is a ceramic material having a thermal characteristic relative to the ceramic material of the outer layer enabling the core to be heated relatively rapidly compared to the ceramic material of the outer layer.
30. The method of claim 29 in which the step of heating includes the step of relatively rapidly heating the core and the step of conveying includes the step of relatively slowly conveying heat from the core through the outer layer to the beverage.
31. The method of claim 18 including the step of selectively heating the heat pack to different temperatures associated with different quantities of hot beverage being added to the liner.
32. The method of claim 31 in which the different temperatures are achieved by performing one of the steps of (a) changing the duration that electrical power is provided to a heat source having a fixed heat output, and (b) changing the heat output during a heating period of fixed duration.
33. A method of maintaining temperature of a hot beverage within a beverage urn, comprising the steps of:
inserting a hot beverage within an urn body having
an outer housing protectively containing a liner for storage of hot beverage, and
heating from an external source of power a heat pack in heat transferring relationship with the liner while mounted within a compartment;
moving the urn to a serving location spaced from the external source of power; and
transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner at the serving location.
34. The method of claim 33 in which the step of heating the heat pack includes the step of transferring heating power from outside of the urn body to the heat pack via a metal, heat conductive bottom defining a bottom of the compartment supporting the heat pack.
35. The method of claim 34 in which the step of transferring conducting heat via a heat conductive leg extending from the compartment to a bottom of the body to transfer heat from the bottom to the interior of the compartment and the heat pack.
36. The method of claim 33 in which the heating means includes an electrical heating element contained within the compartment.
37. The method of claim 33 in which the step of heating includes the step of making electrical contact between an electrical heating element within the compartment and a source of electrical power with means located outside of the body.
38. The method of claim 37 including the steps of
moving the urn into an operative urn position of a brewer to receive brewed beverage from the brewer,
passing freshly brewed beverage directly from the brewer to the urn while located at the operative urn position, and
making electrical connection with an electrical connector positioned relative to the operative urn position for making mating electrical connection with the electrical contact making means of the urn automatically when the urn body is moved into the operative urn position.
39. The method of claim 33 in which the step of heating includes the step of applying electrical power to an electrical heating element contained within a ceramic-like, hollow body within which the electrical heating element is contained.
40. The method of claim 33 in which the means for heating includes means for conveying microwave radiation to the heat pack from an external source.
41. The self-heating urn of claim 40 in which the step of conveying includes the step of conveying radiation through a non-metallic window to the compartment that is transparent to microwave energy.
42. The method of claim 33 in which the step of heating includes the step of heating a heat pack that is one of (a) a ceramic, (b) high density liquids within a liquid impervious case, (c) a phase-change material, and (d) a zeolite-like material.
43. A method of maintaining temperature of a hot beverage within a beverage urn, comprising the steps of:
inserting a hot beverage within an urn body having
an outer housing protectively containing a liner for storage of hot beverage, and
a compartment for containing a heat pack having a zeolite-like material that is one of (a) hydrated salt and a eutectic salt;
heating the heat pack by adding water vapor to the zeolite-like material to initiate an exothermic phase change reaction;
placing the heat pack into the compartment in heat transferring relationship with the liner for transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner;
moving the urn to a serving location spaced from the external source of power; and
transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner at the serving location.
44. A method of maintaining temperature of a hot beverage within a beverage urn, comprising the steps of:
inserting a hot beverage within an urn body having
an outer housing protectively containing a liner for storage of hot beverage, and
a compartment for containing a heat pack formed of a composite ceramic sandwich having an interior ceramic core with a relatively high rate of heat transfer contained within an outer envelope layer of ceramic of relatively low rate of heat transfer;
heating the interior ceramic core;
placing the heat pack into the compartment in heat transferring relationship with the liner for transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner;
moving the urn to a serving location spaced from the external source of power; and
transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner at the serving location.
45. A method of maintaining temperature of a hot beverage within a beverage urn, comprising the steps of:
directly brewing a hot beverage into an urn body having
an outer housing protectively containing a liner for storage of hot beverage, and
a compartment for containing a heat pack;
placing a heat pack within the compartment in heat transferring relationship with the liner for transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner;
heating the heat pack during a brew cycle of the brewer with a heat pack heating apparatus associated with the brewer;
moving the urn to a serving location spaced from the external source of power; and
transferring heat from the heat pack to the liner and any beverage contained within the liner at the serving location.
46. The method of claim 45 in which the step of brewing includes the step of actuating one of (a) a radiant heater, (b) an electrical connector for powering an electrical heating element contained within the body, (c) a microwave heater, and (d) a heat conductive member in contact with a bottom surface of the body.
47. The method of 45 in which the heat pack is removably mounted within the body and the step of heating includes the step of heating the heat pack when outside of the body.
48. The method of claim 47 in which the compartment is located beneath the liner.
49. The method of claim 47 in which the compartment has a doorway for receipt and removal of a heat pack.
50. The method of claim 49 including a door for closing the doorway.
51. The method of claim 49 in which the heat pack is a removable heat pack with structural integrity that is independent of external support by the compartment.
52. The method of claim 45 in which the heat pack is heated automatically when a brew cycle is started and the urn is in a brew receiving location of the brewer.
53. The method of claim 45 in which the heat pack heating means is connected to the brewer.