PatMax® – Getting Started

Session 3

Objectives
• The student will correctly:
 Identify applications where PMAlign can be used to inspect
 Understand the concepts behind how the tool works
 Create and configure a PMAlign tool to find a pattern under various
run-time conditions
 Train a pattern and determine if the automatically extracted features
are valid for the application
 Evaluate parameter settings to determine which are needed for basic
run-time conditions

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 PMAlign

Introducing PatMax
• PatMax is a pattern-location
search technology
– PatMax patterns are not
dependent on the pixel grid
• A feature is a contour that
represents the boundary between
dissimilar regions in an image
• Feature-based representation can
be transformed more quickly and
more accurately than pixel-grid
representations

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PatMax Capabilities
• With one tool measure
– Position of the Pattern
– Size relative to the originally trained pattern
– Angle relative to the originally trained pattern
• Unprecedented accuracy
– Up to 1/40 pixel translation
– Up to 1/50 degree rotation
– Up to 0.05% scale
• Increased speed
– Basic pattern finding is faster
– Angle and size determined quickly

PatMax Capabilities
• Improved alignment yield
– Handles wide range of image contrast
– Defocus, partial occlusion, and unexpected features can be tolerated
• Easier to use
– Direct measurement of angle and size in one step
– Patterns may be transported between machines without loss of fidelity
– Single tool functions more accurately and efficiently than previously
needed multiple tool solution

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PatMax Applications
• Align a printed circuit
board based on
fiducials (alignment)

PatMax Applications
• Locate tabs on peach cans;
variations in translation,
rotation, and lighting
(presence / absence detection)

Result: 4
Result: 3
Result: 2
Result: 1
Score: 0.97
Contrast: 0.94
Fit Error: 0.02
Location: x= 351.08
y= 245.92
Angle: 0.09
X-Scale: 1.0
Y-Scale: 1.0

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PatMax Applications
• Identify engine block by type
despite extreme similarity
between types, lighting
variations, and part rotation
(sorting and classification)

PatMax Algorithms
PatQuick PatMax PatFlex High Sensitivity

• Best for speed • Best for high • Designed for • For low
• Best for three- accuracy highly flexible constrast/high
dimensional or • Great on two- patterns noise images
poor quality parts dimensional parts • Great on curved • Used with very
and uneven noisy backgrounds
• Tolerates more • Best for fine surfaces • Good for images
image variations details
• Extremely that have
flexible, but less significant video
• Example: Pick and • Example: Wafer acurate noise or image
Place alignment degradation
• Example: Label
** PatQuick is the cursory location • Example:
part of the PatMax Obscured part in
algorithm bag

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5
Linking Tools
• You need images for:
– Pattern training
– Run-time inspection

• Link the OutputImage of the

Image Source to the InputImage
of PMAlign
– Drag and drop

11

Training a Pattern
• The PMAlign Tool has three
images associated with it

• To train our pattern, we need

a Current.TrainImage

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Current.InputImage
• PMAlign Tool also has a
Current.InputImage that can
either be a run-time image or
can be “grabbed” as a
training image
(Current.TrainImage)

13

The Big Picture

Train a Pattern

Set Run-time
Parameters

Run PatMax
on the Image

Get PatMax Results

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7
Grab Train Image
• Press the Grab Train Image button in the control

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Pattern Region and Origin

• When using graphics
– Drag and resize training
box around pattern
– Position origin at
appropriate location

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Pattern Region and Origin
• Next, define the region
of pixels containing the
pattern to be trained
and the pattern origin
– Use graphics or enter
values in the Train
Region & Origin tab

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Model Origin
• Model origin identifies the point which will be reported
to you when PatMax locates an instance of the model
in the search scene

• To maintain the greatest accuracy, the origin point

should be placed at the center of the pattern region

Most accurate Less accurate

Origin

Origin

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Train Pattern
• Press the Train button to
train the pattern
– PatMax finds the
features in the Region

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PatMax Patterns
• When you train a pattern, PatMax
determines the features contained
in that pattern
• A feature is a contour that
represents the boundary between
dissimilar regions in an image
• A feature is described by a list of
boundary points that lie along the
contour
– Boundary points are defined by
position (x, y) in the image and its
direction normal to the contour

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Pattern Features
• To see what PatMax
has detected as
features to look for
with this pattern,
check the Train
Features Graphics

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Pattern Features
• Yellow lines indicate coarse
features
– Those used by PatQuick
• Green lines indicate fine
features
– Those used by PatMax

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Pattern Features
• Zoom in to get a closer
look at the detected
features

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InfoStrings
• Watch for any InfoStrings
– These will indicate if the pattern training was successful
– They will also warn of potential problems with the trained pattern

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Pattern Training
General guidelines for PatMax pattern training:
• Select a representative pattern with consistent features
• Reduce needless features and image noise
• Train only important features
• Consider masking to create a representative pattern
• Larger patterns will provide greater accuracy
• Really, the more boundary points, the greater accuracy

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Run-time Parameters
• Choose the run-time algorithm
• Then a Search Mode
– Search Image uses entire image
– Refine Start Pose uses another tool’s results for start
• Then specify the number of instances to find in the run-time
image
• Indicate the Accept threshold

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13
Accept Threshold
• Accept Threshold is a score (between 0 and 1.0) that PatMax
uses to determine if a match represents a valid instance of the
model within the search image. Increasing the acceptance
value reduces the time required for search.

Accept Threshold
0 1.0

Not Valid Valid

Matches Matches

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Coarse Accept Threshold

• Known PatMax behavior
– Accept Threshold = 0.5 -> no pattern found
– Accept Threshold = 0.49 -> pattern found with Score 0.85 !

PatQuick Model PatMax Model Runtime Model

• Now exposing intermediate coarse accept threshold

– You can now modify this if candidates don‘t pass

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Coarse Accept Threshold

Manually set
Coarse Threshold

Use Coarse Score to

set Coarse Threshold

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Degrees of Freedom
• Set either a nominal value or range of values
– Use the arrows to toggle between which you use
– Also toggle between degrees and radians for angle
– ScaleX and ScaleY are advanced parameters

30

15
Search Region
• By default, PatMax searches
the entire image for potential
matches
• To have PatMax look in only a
portion of the image, use a
Region Shape
– Either type in values or use
graphics to set size and
position

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Graphics
• Last, select the
graphics to be shown
at run-time
– Remember graphics
take time to update

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Run PatMax
• Press the Run button to run
PatMax on the current input
image

• If an instance is found,
designated graphics will
appear on the last run input
image

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Results
• Results are displayed
under the Results tab

• If multiple instances are

found, they are returned
in descending order of
score

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Results
• Score
– How well the result features match the trained pattern features

• X, Y
– The location of the found pattern in terms of the specified origin point

• Angle
– The angle of the found pattern relative to the originally trained pattern
– If nominal angle is used, this always equals the nominal value

35

Results
• Fit Error (PatMax algorithm only)
– a measure of the variance between the shape of the trained pattern and the
shape of the pattern instance found in the search image

• Coverage (PatMax algorithm only)

– a measure of the extent to which all parts of the trained pattern are also
present in the search image

• Clutter (PatMax algorithm only)

– a measure of the extent to which the found object contains features that are
not present in the trained pattern

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Results
• Scale
– The size of the found pattern compared to the originally trained
pattern
– If nominal scale is used, this always equals the nominal value
– a.k.a. Uniform Scale

• Scale X, Scale Y
– The size of the found pattern compared to the originally trained
pattern in X and Y directions
– If nominal scale is used, this always equals the nominal value

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Summary
• PatMax is a location based search tool
• Provides high accuracy (up to 1/40 pixel) results

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