Sorting apparatus using programmable classifier

Claim 1

In an apparatus for sorting articles based upon the intensity of light reflected therefrom at a first and a second color wavelength, the apparatus including (a) a viewer element adapted to view a viewed area through which an article to be sorted passes; (b) an electrical signal generator element adapted to generate a first and a second electrical signal respectively representative of the intensity of light reflected from the article at the first and the second color wavelengths, wherein the improvement comprises: an article classifier for classifying the article to be sorted on the basis of the intensity of light reflected from the article at the first and second color wavelengths, the classifier including a random access memory element having a plurality of memory storage locations defining a matrix array therein, each memory location being addressable by a different combination of reflected light intensities at the first and second color wavelengths, each memory location having stored therein a classification signal representative of the acceptability of an article exhibiting the reflected light intensities at the first and second color wavelengths corresponding to the address of the memory storage location to electrically define in the matrix array the boundaries of an acceptability profile of the type of article being sorted, and wherein the signal generator generates a multi-bit digital signal representative of the light reflected at the first and second color wavelengths, and wherein each memory storage location is defined by a predetermined number of significant bits of the signal representative of the light reflected from the article at the first color and by a predetermined number of significant bits of the signal representative of the light reflected from the article at the second color.