Waste separation device

Abstract

A waste separation devices includes a source of radiation for irradiating waste, a camera for capturing an image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation, where an item in the waste is provided with a pattern in or on a surface of the item, the pattern forming a repetition of dots, a code being stored in a sequence of adjacent ones of the dots, a data processing device for processing the image to detect the pattern and for deriving the code from the sequence of adjacent ones of the dots of the pattern, and a separator for separating in accordance with the code the item the pattern from the waste. The pattern may be a relief pattern. The relief pattern may comprise a pattern of bumps and recesses. The pattern, such as in a form of a relief, may also be applied to identify the item.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A waste separation device comprising:
 a source of radiation configured to irradiate the waste;   a camera configured and arranged to capture an image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation;   wherein an item in the waste is provided with a pattern, the pattern being provided in or on a surface of the item, the pattern forming a repetition of dots, a waste separation code being stored in a sequence of adjacent ones of the dots,   wherein the source of radiation is arranged to provide irradiation on at least part of the surface of the item,   wherein each dot forms a bump or recess of the surface of the item, wherein, seen along a direction of irradiation, the dots form leading and trailing edges of the surface of the item, and wherein the irradiation on at least part of the surface of the item forming by the dots an image of highlights at the leading edges and shades at the trailing edges on the surface of the item, and wherein the camera is configured to capture the image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation by capturing the image of highlights at the leading edges and shades at the trailing edges,   wherein the device further comprises a data processing device connected to the camera for receiving the image of the waste item, the data processing device being configured to:   process the image to detect the pattern;   derive the waste separation code from the sequence of adjacent ones of the dots of the pattern, wherein the captured image of highlights and shades provides an image of leading and trailing edges wherein the highlights represent the leading edges and the shades represent the trailing edges, and wherein the data processing device is configured to derive the waste separation code from the leading edges and/or the trailing edges in the image of leading and trailing edges; and   wherein the device further comprises:   a separator, connected to the data processing device and configured to separate in accordance with the waste separation code the item comprising the pattern from the waste.   
     
     
         2 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein plural dots are imaged at a time. 
     
     
         3 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein, in the image of highlights and shades, the waste separation code is derived from one of
 the highlights at the leading edges,   the shades at the trailing edges, and   a combination of the highlights at the leading edges and the shades at the trailing edges.   
     
     
         4 . The waste separation device of  claim 1 , wherein the data processing device is configured to inverse the highlights in the image of highlights and shades. 
     
     
         5 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the irradiation comprises floodlight irradiation irradiating at an acute angle in respect of the surface of the item. 
     
     
         6 . The waste separation device according to  claim 5 , wherein the floodlight irradiation irradiates at an angle between 1 and 30 degrees in respect of the surface of the item, preferably between 3 and 15 degrees in respect of the surface of the item. 
     
     
         7 . The waste separation device according to g  claim 1 , wherein is the dots are provided on an inside surface of the item, the item having been made from an at least partly transparent material, causing the dots to be visible from the outside. 
     
     
         8 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein plural items are imaged at a time, the image being divided in plural image parts. 
     
     
         9 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the dots of the pattern are coded into at least four different dot values, at least two of the dot values forming a code information dot value range, the remaining dot values forming a compensation dot value range, the dots having a dot value in the code information dot value range coding the waste separation code, the dots having dot values in the compensation dot value range balancing an average dot value of the pattern, a difference in deformation between dots having different dot values in the compensation dot value range being smaller than a difference in deformation between dots having different dot values in the code information dot value range. 
     
     
         10 . The waste separation device according to  claim 9 , wherein a maximum height deformation of the dots in the code information dot value range is truncated. 
     
     
         11 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern is a redundant code. 
     
     
         12 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern repeats plural times on the surface of the item, the waste separation code being derived from a combination of fragments of neighbouring patterns. 
     
     
         13 . The waste separation device according to  claim 12 , wherein the surface of the item is curved, neighbouring patterns are offset in respect of each other along a curvature of the surface of the item. 
     
     
         14 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein a shape of the bumps and/or recesses is symmetrical, seen along raster lines of the pattern. 
     
     
         15 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein a size of the bumps and/or recesses is progressive to a value of the dot of the pattern. 
     
     
         16 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the sequence of adjacent ones of the dots is a pseudo random sequence. 
     
     
         17 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the adjacent dots are arranged at a constant mutual distance, the dots comprising at least two differently shaped dots, the waste separation code being stored in a sequencing of the differently shaped dots. 
     
     
         18 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the adjacent dots are arranged at a variable mutual distance, the waste separation code being stored in the variable mutual distance between the adjacent dots. 
     
     
         19 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the sequence is a  2  dimensional sequence of a group of dots, the group comprising at least 100 times 100 dots, preferably at least 256 times 256 dots. 
     
     
         20 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern comprises at least 1024, preferably at least 4096, more preferably at least 8192 dots. 
     
     
         21 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein a pitch of the dots is at least 0.1 millimetres, preferably between 1 and 3 millimetres. 
     
     
         22 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the waste separation code comprises a pointer to further waste separation information. 
     
     
         23 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the waste separation code comprises at least one of a material type, a toxicity code, a material safety code, a date of manufacturing of the item, a manufacturer identification code, a manufacturer identification code of a content of the item, a brand name identification code, a brand owner identification code, an identification code of a country of production, an identification code of a place of production, an identification code of a country of sale, an identification code of an addition, a warning and a disclaimer. 
     
     
         24 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern comprises a relief pattern and wherein preferably the dots are formed by at least one of bumps and recesses. 
     
     
         25 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the pattern repeats the waste separation code plural times. 
     
     
         26 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the source of radiation comprises a polarized light source and wherein the capturing the image of the waste comprises
 photographing the waste via a polarization filter.   
     
     
         27 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the source of radiation emits waves in a millimeter wavelength range, and wherein the capturing the image of the waste comprises:
 imaging the waste in a wavelength range of the millimeter wavelength.   
     
     
         28 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the waste separation code derived from the dots of the pattern comprises a pointer to a further waste separation code in a database, the method comprising retrieving the further waste separation code from the database by sending the pointer to the database. 
     
     
         29 . The waste separation device according to  claim 1 , wherein the floodlight irradiation along at least part of the surface of the item forms, at each dot, a highlight and a shade.