阅读说明：本技术 一种分区可控环形机器视觉光源及其控制方法 (Partition controllable annular machine vision light source and control method thereof ) 是由 金宇翱 王耿 范兴刚 陈和平 席宁 于 2021-06-25 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种分区可控环形机器视觉光源及其控制方法,分区可控环形机器视觉光源包括：多个环形光源组件,多个环形光源组件层叠设置,多个环形光源组件的半径均不相同,且多个环形光源组件的轴心线重合,其中,环形光源组件包括多个圆弧子区,圆弧子区内均匀排布有多个LED灯珠,同一环形光源组件的LED灯珠的倾斜角均相同；控制组件,控制组件包括多个控制单元,控制单元与圆弧子区一一对应,控制单元用于调整对应的圆弧子区内的LED灯珠的亮度。本发明可以提供丰富多样的光场条件,为工业检测中各种复杂的检测场景提供了便利,在保证引线数量尽可能少的前提下,提高了对光场控制的准确度。本发明可广泛应用于机器视觉光源技术领域。(The invention discloses a partition controllable annular machine vision light source and a control method thereof, wherein the partition controllable annular machine vision light source comprises: the LED lamp comprises a plurality of annular light source assemblies, a plurality of LED lamp beads and a plurality of LED lamp beads, wherein the annular light source assemblies are stacked, the radiuses of the annular light source assemblies are different, and the axial leads of the annular light source assemblies are overlapped; the control assembly comprises a plurality of control units, the control units correspond to the arc sub-areas one to one, and the control units are used for adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the corresponding arc sub-areas. The invention can provide abundant and diverse optical field conditions, provides convenience for various complex detection scenes in industrial detection, and improves the accuracy of optical field control on the premise of ensuring the number of leads as small as possible. The invention can be widely applied to the technical field of machine vision light sources.)

1. A zoned controllable annular machine vision light source, comprising:

the LED lamp comprises a plurality of annular light source assemblies, a plurality of LED lamp beads and a plurality of LED lamp beads, wherein the plurality of annular light source assemblies are stacked, the radiuses of the plurality of annular light source assemblies are different, and the axial leads of the plurality of annular light source assemblies are overlapped;

the control assembly comprises a plurality of control units, the control units correspond to the arc sub-areas one to one, and the control units are used for adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the corresponding arc sub-areas.

2. The zonally controllable, annular machine vision light source of claim 1, wherein: the central angles of the circular arc sub-areas of the same annular light source assembly are the same.

3. A zoned controllable annular machine vision light source as claimed in claim 2, wherein: the number of the circular arc sub-areas of each annular light source assembly is the same, and the central angles of the circular arc sub-areas of each annular light source assembly are the same.

4. A zoned controllable annular machine vision light source as claimed in claim 3, wherein: the center lines of the circular arc sub-areas of the annular light source assemblies correspond to each other one by one, and the corresponding center lines are parallel to each other.

5. A zoned controllable annular machine vision light source as claimed in claim 3, wherein: the central lines of the circular arc sub-regions of the annular light source assemblies are unparallel pairwise.

6. The zonally controllable, annular machine vision light source of claim 1, wherein: and the annular light source assemblies are sequentially stacked according to the radius.

7. A zoned controllable annular machine vision light source as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: the partition-controllable annular machine vision light source further comprises a plurality of leads, the leads correspond to the arc sub-areas one to one, and the LED lamp beads in the same arc sub-area are connected with the corresponding control units through the same leads.

8. A method of controlling a zoned controllable ring machine vision light source, for implementation by a zoned controllable ring machine vision light source as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, comprising the steps of:

acquiring position information of an area to be irradiated, and determining an incident angle and illumination intensity according to the position information;

selecting a plurality of annular light source components according to the incident angle, and determining a plurality of arc sub-areas on the selected annular light source components as arc sub-areas to be controlled according to the position information;

determining a corresponding control unit according to the arc sub-area to be controlled, and further generating a plurality of control signals through the control unit, wherein the control signals are generated according to the illumination intensity;

and adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the arc sub-area to be controlled through the control signal.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of machine vision light sources, in particular to a partitioned controllable annular machine vision light source and a control method thereof.

Background

Under the guidance of the action outline of 2025 (Chinese manufacturing), the importance of industrial detection is gradually increased, and in order to improve the detection efficiency and save the labor cost, the industrial detection is inevitably applied to machine vision detection, so that efficient industrial operation can be realized. In the whole visual inspection system, the light source is especially important to be detected. There are also many control light sources on the market, as well as many ring light sources that are controlled hierarchically. The special illumination environment is provided by controlling the color, the light intensity or the area of the light source, so that different requirements are met.

For example, in the defect detection of the scratch of the automobile paint surface, aiming at the special condition of a smooth and high-reflection automobile surface, a multilayer annular low-angle light source is provided, the design adopts the low angle and utilizes diffuse reflection generated by the defects such as the scratch and the like, so that the defects are captured skillfully by the lens, and the incident angle is enriched by the multilayer multi-angle design, so that the multilayer multi-angle light source can be suitable for a lot of conditions. Although most of the detection can be achieved by the annular bottom-angle light source, the defect detection at some special positions still has defects in practical detection. Considering the irregularity of the appearance of some parts, when we detect a certain area most, the reflected light of other areas will affect the area to be observed, so it is necessary to control the area of the light source to reduce the undesirable interference.

Most of the existing annular control light sources can only realize layered control, but cannot perform accurate area control, some of the existing annular control light sources can realize zoning, and the division of the areas is meaningless because the divided areas are too large or the combination is single. Therefore, the machine vision light source with the accurate control in the subareas has urgent requirements and wide application prospects. Theoretically, if each LED lamp bead is controlled independently, relevant problems can be solved. However, in the actual light source manufacturing, because the number of wires required for individual control is huge, the manufacturing of such a light source is impractical, and when the number of LED lamp beads is small and large, the integration problem is difficult to solve.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention aims to: provides a multi-level, multi-angle and accurate-control subarea controllable annular machine vision light source and a control method thereof.

The first technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows:

a zoned controllable annular machine vision light source, comprising:

the LED lamp comprises a plurality of annular light source assemblies, a plurality of LED lamp beads and a plurality of LED lamp beads, wherein the plurality of annular light source assemblies are stacked, the radiuses of the plurality of annular light source assemblies are different, and the axial leads of the plurality of annular light source assemblies are overlapped;

the control assembly comprises a plurality of control units, the control units correspond to the arc sub-areas one to one, and the control units are used for adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the corresponding arc sub-areas.

Further, in one embodiment of the present invention, the circular arc sub-regions of the same annular light source module have the same central angle.

Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the number of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly is the same, and the central angles of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly are the same.

Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the center lines of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly correspond to each other one by one, and the corresponding center lines are parallel to each other.

Further, in one embodiment of the present invention, the center lines of the circular arc sub-regions of each of the annular light source assemblies are not parallel two by two.

Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, each of the annular light source assemblies is sequentially stacked according to a radius.

Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the zonally controllable annular machine vision light source further includes a plurality of lead wires, the lead wires correspond to the arc sub-zones one to one, and the LED lamp beads in the same arc sub-zone are all connected to the corresponding control unit through the same lead wire.

The second technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows:

a control method of a zone controllable annular machine vision light source is used for being realized by the zone controllable annular machine vision light source, and comprises the following steps:

acquiring position information of an area to be irradiated, and determining an incident angle and illumination intensity according to the position information;

selecting a plurality of annular light source components according to the incident angle, and determining a plurality of arc sub-areas on the selected annular light source components as arc sub-areas to be controlled according to the position information;

determining a corresponding control unit according to the arc sub-area to be controlled, and further generating a plurality of control signals through the control unit, wherein the control signals are generated according to the illumination intensity;

and adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the arc sub-area to be controlled through the control signal.

The invention has the beneficial effects that: the invention relates to a zone controllable annular machine vision light source and a control method thereof, which are characterized in that a plurality of layers of annular light source components are arranged, a plurality of circular arc sub-zones are divided on the annular light source components, thereby the brightness of the LED lamp beads in each arc subregion can be controlled and adjusted in a subarea way, the control of the light field of the irradiated area is realized, because the subregion setting of circular arc subregion on the multilayer annular light source subassembly for the size of illuminated area light field, position, illumination intensity and incident angle all can be adjusted through the luminance of the interior LED lamp pearl of the circular arc subregion that the adjustment corresponds, can provide abundant diversified light field condition on the one hand, for various complicated detection scenes provide convenience in the industrial detection, on the other hand is through the layering subregion control to LED lamp pearl, under the prerequisite that guarantees that lead wire quantity is as few as possible, the degree of accuracy to light field control has been improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a zonally controllable annular machine vision light source according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a zone-controllable annular machine vision light source according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a zone-controllable annular machine vision light source according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a first sectional view of a zonally controllable annular machine vision light source according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a second sectional view of a sectionally controllable annular machine vision light source according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a wire connection of a zone-controllable annular machine vision light source according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a control assembly for a zone controllable annular machine vision light source provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of a method for controlling a zone-controllable annular machine vision light source according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numerals:

10. an annular light source assembly; 20. an irradiated area; 101. a circular arc sub-area; 1011. LED lamp pearl.

Detailed Description

The invention is described in further detail below with reference to the figures and the specific embodiments. The step numbers in the following embodiments are provided only for convenience of illustration, the order between the steps is not limited at all, and the execution order of each step in the embodiments can be adapted according to the understanding of those skilled in the art.

In the description of the present invention, the meaning of a plurality is more than two, if there are first and second described for the purpose of distinguishing technical features, but not for indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features or implicitly indicating the precedence of the indicated technical features. Furthermore, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The terminology used in the description herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.

Referring to fig. 1, 2 and 3, an embodiment of the present invention provides a zonally controllable annular machine vision light source, comprising:

the annular light source assemblies 10 are stacked, the radiuses of the annular light source assemblies 10 are different, and the axial leads of the annular light source assemblies 10 are overlapped, wherein each annular light source assembly 10 comprises a plurality of circular arc sub-areas 101, a plurality of LED lamp beads 1011 are uniformly distributed in each circular arc sub-area 101, and the inclination angles of the LED lamp beads 1011 of the same annular light source assembly 10 are the same;

the control assembly comprises a plurality of control units, the control units correspond to the arc sub-areas 101 one to one, and the control units are used for adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads 1011 in the corresponding arc sub-areas 101.

As shown in fig. 3, which is a schematic cross-sectional view of a zone-controlled annular machine vision light source provided by the embodiment of the present invention, it can be understood that, the annular light source assembly 10 of the embodiment of the present invention has N layers (only three layers are shown in fig. 2 and 3), each layer of annular light source assembly 10 is provided with a plurality of LED lamp beads 1011, the radius of each layer of annular light source assembly 10 can be represented as R1, R2. The angle of incidence of each layer of annular light source assembly 10 may be denoted as β 1, β 2.

The number of the partitions is usually determined by the size of a light source workpiece and the wiring difficulty, because the cost and the technology for realizing the independent control of each LED lamp bead are not practical, the maximum number of the circular arc sub-areas which can be divided by the annular light source assembly is represented by M, and the number of the partitions is generally small compared with the LED lamp beads with extremely large number.

As shown in fig. 2, which is a schematic perspective view of the zone-controllable annular machine vision light source provided in the embodiment of the present invention, it can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the annular light source assembly 10 has three layers (N is 3), each layer of annular light source assembly 10 is divided into nine circular arc sub-regions 101(M is 9), each circular arc sub-region 101 contains a plurality of LED lamp beads 1011, the inclination angles of the LED lamp beads 1011 in each layer of annular light source assembly 10 are the same, and the radii of each layer of annular light source assembly 10 are different.

Further as an alternative embodiment, the circular arc sub-regions of the same annular light source assembly have the same central angle.

Specifically, the central angles of the circular arc sub-regions of the same annular light source assembly are the same, so that the LED lamp beads are more uniformly distributed, and the light field of the irradiated region can be conveniently adjusted in a multi-level and multi-angle manner.

Further as an optional embodiment, the number of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly is the same, and the central angles of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly are the same.

Particularly, the number of the circular arc sub-regions of each layer of annular light source assembly is equal to the central angle, so that regular uniform fields can be formed through the circular arc sub-regions of the plurality of layers of annular light source assemblies, and convenience is further provided for adjusting the light field of the irradiated region in a multi-layer and multi-angle manner.

Referring to fig. 4, as a further alternative embodiment, the center lines of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly correspond one to one, and the corresponding center lines are parallel to each other.

As shown in fig. 4, which is a first schematic partition diagram of the partition-controllable annular machine vision light source provided in the embodiment of the present invention, two layers of annular light source assemblies are taken as an example, each layer is provided with 9 circular arc sub-regions, the circular arc sub-regions of each layer are arranged in parallel, and the center lines of the corresponding circular arc sub-regions are parallel to each other. In fig. 4, the middle region is a uniform field formed by a plurality of layers of annular light source assemblies, each layer is provided with 9 arc sub-regions, and the arc sub-regions of each layer are arranged in parallel in the embodiment of the present invention, so that the formed uniform field is totally divided into 9 partitions, and each region angle θ is equal to 40 °. The annular light source modules of each layer are denoted by letters, for example a layer, B layer. The arc sub-area of the layer a is represented by a1 and a2.. AM, and the arc sub-area of the layer B is represented by B1 and B2.. BM.

When a uniform field partition needs to be controlled, the LED lamp beads of the two arc sub-regions a9 and B9 can be adjusted only by finding the arc sub-region corresponding to the partition, for example, by adjusting the light field of the partition 9. And because the incident angles of the A layer and the B layer are different, the incident angle can be adjusted while the illumination intensity is adjusted. In the present embodiment (N ═ 2), there are a total of 4 combinations for the uniform field partitions 9, open only a9, open only B9, fully open and fully closed. By analogy, for a light source with N layers, a uniform field partition may have 2^NAnd (4) combination.

Referring to fig. 5, as a further alternative embodiment, the center lines of the circular arc sub-regions of each annular light source assembly are not parallel two by two.

As shown in fig. 5, which is a second schematic partition diagram of the partition-controllable vision light source of the annular machine according to the embodiment of the present invention, in the embodiment of the present invention, two layers of annular light source assemblies are taken as an example, each layer is provided with 9 circular arc sub-regions, the circular arc sub-regions of each layer are arranged in a staggered manner, and the center lines of the circular arc sub-regions are not parallel to each other. It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the circular arc sub-regions of each layer are mutually staggered, so that the light fields generated by the circular arc sub-regions of each layer in the irradiated region are also mutually staggered, and a small uniform field partition is generated in the overlapping portion.

Further, in order to keep the size of each uniform field partition uniform, the shift angle may be optimized, and the uniform field may be divided into MN uniform field partitions having the same size by setting the shift angle to [360 °/(MN) ]. In this way, homogeneous field partitions are refined as much as possible under feasible technical conditions.

As shown in fig. 5, the uniform field partitions may be numbered sequentially O1 through OMN. And meanwhile, the arc sub-regions of the N layers of annular light source assemblies are also marked, the arc sub-region of the A layer is represented by A1 and A2. Similar to the above parallel arrangement, for example, to control the O1 area, the LED bulbs in the corresponding arc sub-areas a1 and B9 can be adjusted, so as to adjust the light intensity and incident angle of the O1 area.

It will be appreciated that the parallel distribution and the offset distribution are as many as the combination provided by the light zone of the minimum area, both of which are 2, in the same number of layers N and the same number of circular arc sub-zones M^NAnd (4) combination. However, the controllable uniform field partitions arranged in a staggered manner can be smaller, and the controllable uniform field partitions are 20-degree sectors in the embodiment of the invention, while the minimum uniform field partitions arranged in parallel with the same number of layers and the same number of arc sub-areas are 40-degree sectors. When uniform field areas of the same size are controlled (e.g., both 40), the misalignment distribution can provide more combinations of control, such as O1, O2, FIG. 5, for a total of 8 combinations, and so on for a total of 2^(2N-1)And (4) combination.

Further as an optional embodiment, the annular light source assemblies are sequentially stacked according to the radius.

Referring to fig. 6, as a further optional implementation manner, the zone-controllable annular machine vision light source further includes a plurality of leads, the leads correspond to the arc sub-zones one to one, and the LED lamp beads in the same arc sub-zone are connected to the corresponding control units through the same lead.

In the embodiment of the invention, each circular arc sub-area is subjected to independent lead control. A lead is LED out from each arc subregion, the interface model is set, and the control assembly is matched with the corresponding port of the control assembly, so that the control assembly can control the LED lamp beads in each arc subregion. The lead mode can be designed according to actual production conditions, the most direct method is that each circular arc sub-area is directly led to the control assembly, and leads of a plurality of circular arc sub-areas can be integrated and then connected to the control assembly. The number of ports on the control assembly can also be designed reasonably according to needs, and the interfaces can be designed by using communication modes such as RS-232 and EIA-485, and the like, which are not described herein.

Optionally, the control assembly can include a human-computer interaction module, when the total number MN of the arc sub-areas is small, an independent knob can be arranged for each arc sub-area in the control assembly to control the brightness of the switch, wherein each knob can adjust the brightness of all the LED lamp beads in the corresponding arc sub-area from full darkness to full brightness, and a digital display board can be arranged to facilitate accurate regulation and control of the brightness.

As shown in fig. 6, which is a schematic view of a lead connection of a zone-controllable annular machine vision light source provided by an embodiment of the present invention, a control assembly of an embodiment of the present invention is provided with a digital display panel for human-computer interaction, a switch, and a plurality of knobs corresponding to respective arc sub-zones, where a layer a includes a part a1 to a9, and a layer B includes a part B1 to a part B9, and can respectively control LED lamp beads in the respective arc sub-zones.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a control assembly according to another embodiment of the present invention, in this embodiment, the uniform field zones and the arc sub-zones are aligned in advance, the arc sub-zones can be directly marked as 1, 2, 3, 4.. to M, a first knob is provided for each signal, the first knob is divided into three shift positions, one is off, one is on, and one is on while being on; meanwhile, each layer of annular light source assembly is provided with a second knob, when an arc sub-area with the same sequence number of each layer is accessed, the layer A, the layer B and the layer C can be rotated to the layer N, and therefore layered control over the arc sub-areas with the same sequence number is achieved. For example, a first knob with the sequence number of 3 in the M zone is accessed, and second knobs A and B in the N zone are controlled, so that circular arc sub-zones A3 and B3 can be controlled; or simultaneously accessing the first knobs with the serial numbers of 7 and 8 in the M area, and adjusting the second knob B in the N area to control the circular arc sub-areas B7 and B8.

The structure and the control method of the embodiment of the invention are described above, and it can be understood that, in the embodiment of the invention, the light field of the irradiated area is controlled by arranging the multilayer annular light source assembly and dividing the annular light source assembly into the plurality of arc sub-areas, and further the brightness of the LED lamp beads in each arc sub-area can be controlled and adjusted in a partition manner, and as the arc sub-areas on the multilayer annular light source assembly are arranged in a partition manner, the size, the position, the illumination intensity and the incident angle of the light field of the irradiated area can be adjusted by adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the corresponding arc sub-areas, on one hand, rich and diverse light field conditions can be provided, convenience is provided for various complex detection scenes in industrial detection, on the other hand, by controlling the LED lamp beads in a partition manner in a hierarchical manner, on the premise of ensuring that the number of leads is as small as possible, the accuracy of the light field control is improved.

Referring to fig. 8, an embodiment of the present invention provides a control method for a partitioned controllable annular machine vision light source, which is implemented by the above partitioned controllable annular machine vision light source, and includes the following steps:

s101, acquiring position information of an area to be irradiated, and determining an incident angle and illumination intensity according to the position information;

s102, selecting a plurality of annular light source assemblies according to incident angles, and determining a plurality of arc sub-areas on the selected annular light source assemblies as arc sub-areas to be controlled according to position information;

s103, determining a corresponding control unit according to the arc sub-area to be controlled, and further generating a plurality of control signals through the control unit, wherein the control signals are generated according to the illumination intensity;

and S104, adjusting the brightness of the LED lamp beads in the arc sub-area to be controlled through the control signals.

Specifically, the control method of the embodiment of the invention can realize automatic control of the vision light source of the partitioned controllable annular machine, can provide abundant and diverse light field conditions, provides convenience for various complex detection scenes in industrial detection, and simultaneously improves the accuracy of light field control.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", and the like, indicate orientations and positional relationships based on the orientations and positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are used merely for convenience in describing the present invention and for simplicity in description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element so referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, the meaning of a plurality of means is one or more, the meaning of a plurality of means is two or more, and larger, smaller, larger, etc. are understood as excluding the number, and larger, smaller, inner, etc. are understood as including the number. If the first and second are described for the purpose of distinguishing technical features, they are not to be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated or implicitly indicating the precedence of the technical features indicated.

In the present invention, unless otherwise expressly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly and can, for example, be fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally formed; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through intervening media, or they may be connected internally or in any other suitable relationship, unless expressly stated otherwise. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those skilled in the art according to specific situations.

In the present invention, unless otherwise expressly stated or limited, the first feature "on" or "under" the second feature may be directly contacting the first and second features or indirectly contacting the first and second features through an intermediate. Also, a first feature "on," "over," and "above" a second feature may be directly or diagonally above the second feature, or may simply indicate that the first feature is at a higher level than the second feature. A first feature being "under," "below," and "beneath" a second feature may be directly under or obliquely under the first feature, or may simply mean that the first feature is at a lesser elevation than the second feature.

In the description of the present invention, reference to the description of the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above are not necessarily intended to refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, various embodiments or examples and features of different embodiments or examples described in this specification can be combined and combined by one skilled in the art without contradiction.

It should be recognized that embodiments of the present invention can be realized and implemented by computer hardware, a combination of hardware and software, or by computer instructions stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory. The above-described methods may be implemented in a computer program using standard programming techniques, including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured with the computer program, where the storage medium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner, according to the methods and figures described in the detailed description. Each program may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a computer system. However, the program(s) can be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. Furthermore, the program can be run on a programmed application specific integrated circuit for this purpose.

Further, the operations of processes described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The processes described herein (or variations and/or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, and may be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) collectively executed on one or more processors, by hardware, or combinations thereof. The computer program includes a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors.

Further, the above-described methods may be implemented in any type of computing platform operatively connected to a suitable host, including but not limited to personal computers, minicomputers, mainframe computers, systems, networked or distributed computing environments, separate or integrated computer platforms, or in communication with charged particle tools or other imaging devices, and the like. Aspects of the invention may be embodied in machine-readable code stored on a non-transitory storage medium or device, whether removable or integrated into a computing platform, such as a hard disk, optically read and/or write storage medium, RAM, ROM, or the like, such that it may be read by a programmable computer, which when read by the storage medium or device, is operative to configure and operate the computer to perform the procedures described herein. Further, the machine-readable code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted over a wired or wireless network. The invention described herein includes these and other various classes of non-transitory computer-readable storage media when such media include instructions or programs that implement the steps described above in conjunction with a microprocessor or other data processor. The invention also includes the computer itself when programmed according to the methods and techniques described herein.

A computer program can be applied to input data to perform the functions described herein to transform the input data to generate output data that is stored to non-volatile memory. The output information may also be applied to one or more output devices, such as a display. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the transformed data represents physical and tangible objects, including particular visual depictions of physical and tangible objects produced on a display.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention as long as the technical effects of the present invention are achieved by the same means. The invention is capable of other modifications and variations in its technical solution and/or its implementation, within the scope of protection of the invention.