Interested in 3D with linescan cameras?

Waiting for checked bags in baggage claim is a pain in the whatsit, which is why we all stuff our roll-ons in the overhead locker. But according to “Baggage-scanning system minimizes lost luggage”, published in Machine Design magazine, February 13^th, 2013, machine vision is going to make the air traveler’s life a little easier.

The article describes a system that uses linescan cameras – presumably 3 – to produce a 3D image of each piece of checked baggage as it passes beneath on a conveyor. From this the software can identify items which have a high probability of causing problems so they can be segregated.

Intriguingly, the article refers to “a contour scan camera”. Not knowing what one of those is, I went to the website of the company that developed the system, www.vanderlande.com, in the hope of learning more.

Sadly, I was disappointed. While there are some pictures of the Bagcheck system, technical details are lacking. Perhaps that’s because the people who are buying these things are more focused on performance than the hardware and software details.

So I shall do what I always do in such cases, and hope that Vision Systems Design digs deep and gives us the low-down.