Description:AUTOMATIC FINE LEAF COUNT DEVICE AND METHOD THEREOF

FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of counting of plant parts for quality that enables further sorting and grading plants and plant parts using image processing. Particularly the invention relates to an automatic fine leaf count device for counting fine leaves based on computer vision or image processing technology to separate high quality leaves and separate them. Additionally, the invention in exemplary embodiment discloses tea leaf counting device and method.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
The information disclosed in this background of disclosure section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.
Tea is rated as one of the most popular beverage around the world. Traditional tea harvesting by hand is labor-intensive, mechanical harvesting using tea-plucking machines has been widely adopted by many countries. plucking frequency. The tea planting industry that has successful harvesting policies in a tea estate has a direct impact on tea plantation production or rather viability. Typically, the presence of more than 75 to 80 per cent of good leaves (up to two leaves and a bud) ensures better product quality.
The raw fresh tea leaves (FTLs) harvested by plucking machines vary in terms of the number of buds and leaves (Han et al., 2014). Generally, younger leaves contain more beneficial ingredients, such as amino acid and theanine. To obtain high-quality green tea, FTLs with only one bud and/or one young leaf should be separated from raw FTLs.
CN202778958U discloses a utility model relates to a kind of sorting unit, relates in particular to a kind of tea sorting machine. The utility model proposes a kind of tea winnower, what mainly solve is that tea winnower and affects the problem of the crudy of tealeaves because the wind-speed gear of its blower fan or high or lowly be difficult to accomplish accurately distinguish tealeaves in the prior art. The invention lacks in that it is not an automated system that utilizes Artificial system or a computer enabled system.
JP4422948B2 relates to a tea leaf color sorter for sorting out and removing leaves having a predetermined color such as white stems in tea leaves. The invention discloses a chute arranged at a predetermined angle and can flow while the tea leaves are aligned from the upper part to the lower part thereof, and the tea leaves are provided on the upper part of the chute to supply the tea leaves on the chute. A supply means for dropping, a CCD camera for capturing an image of tea leaves falling from the lower part of the chute, and whether or not the object to be imaged has a predetermined color based on the color of the image obtained by the CCD camera. Here the image processing is based on only the color of the leaf so sorting is based purely on captured color. air based sorting of the failed leaves is provided by the invention, wherein the nozzle for air is also connected to the CCD camera.
IN227887 discloses a continuous type multi-purpose tea shoot sorter capable of
sorting leaves, stem, roots, flowers, fruits and nuts of aromatic and medicinal plant varieties. wedge type conveyor belt assembly (1) for uniform collection of green tea shoots/biomass the said conveyor (1) connected to sieving trays having one and more meshes of variable sizes (2) and (3) connected to a wedge type conveyor belt (4) for discharging smaller grade materials to requisite place; the conveyor belt (4) being connected to a wedge type conveyor belt (5) for discharging intermediate grade materials to requisite place; a prime mover with pulley cam assembly (6) mounted on a platform (7) being connected to the said conveyors (1,4,5) to transmit power to the unit; an anti-vibration cushion rubber pad with bracket assembly (8) to support the said sieving tray at the free end sorting machine; collection trays (9) and (10) being provided below the said sieving tray a wedge type conveyor belt for discharging unsieved graded materials at requisite place; a conveyor belt mounting assembly (12) for supporting the conveyor belts; a bracket assembly (13), a blind mesh (14) to separate graded materials, mounted on an inclined platform with mild steel flat support (15) at the head end; a charging hopper (16) with wedge type conveyor belt assembly (17) being provided before the said conveyor belt assembly (1); said hopper having a metering device (18) and a slit opening (19) for feeding tea shoots/biomass. This is a mechanical device which is not automated for sorting.
IN230366 discloses a novel sensor for the determination of moisture in agricultural produce and a moisture sensing device made thereof, comprising a ceramic substrate having a dielectric constant within 100, provided with plurality of thick film planar electrodes of thickness range of 0.5-1 mm, connected to two terminals in alternate manner
Accordingly there is a need for an automated device for quality determination of plant parts, particularly leaves. Further there is a need for an automatic fine leaf count device which provides counting of fine leaves with accuracy and reduced processing time. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing and modifying other methods and structures for carrying out the same purpose of the present invention. Further, features of some stages disclosed in this application may be employed with features of other stages. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the terminology of the following claims and the legal equivalents thereof.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
One or more problems of the conventional prior art may be overcome by various embodiments of the present invention.
It is a primary object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks in the manual process of quality determination of Plant parts.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device and method for quality check of plant parts.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device which provides counting of fine leaves with accuracy and reduced processing time.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for automatic counting of fine leaves using AI or Artificial intelligence based image monitoring system.
These and other objects and advantages of the present subject matter will be apparent to a person skilled in the art after consideration of the following detailed description taken into consideration with accompanying drawings in which the preferred embodiment of the present subject matter are illustrated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following disclosure presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.

It is a primary aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device [100], comprising:
a feed hopper[10] driven by a first motor [31] for receiving leaves as a bunch;
one or more vibrators [22, 23] respectively connected in parallel below the feed hopper [10] for separating the individual leaves from the bunch;
one or more conveyors [24, 25] driven by a second motor [32] and third motor [33] for receiving and transferring the separated individual fine leaves to an outlet bin [30], wherein a first conveyor [24] is positioned to receive the separated individual leaves from a second vibrator [23] and second conveyor [25] is positioned to receive the separated individual fine leaves from the first conveyor [24] and transfer it to the outlet bin [30]; and
an image capturing module [20] positioned above the second conveyor [25] for capturing real time images of the separated fine leaves, wherein the image capturing module [20] comprises an image capturing device connected with a wired or wireless module; and
a portable device connected to the image capturing device through the wired or wireless module, wherein the portable device includes an analytical module [14],
wherein the portable device is configured to have a pre-stored database of standard images for comparison to the real time images captured by the image capturing device of the image capturing unit [20],
wherein the analytical module [14] in the portable device compares the real-time images with the standard images in the pre-stored database and counts the fine leaves.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the analytical module [14] in the portable device is configured to count the fine leaves.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the analytical module [14] is an FLC (Fine/Coarse leaf Content) analysis unit.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the first motor [31], second motor [32], and third motor [33] are connected to the power source through a speed control unit.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the third motor [31] controls speed of the second conveyor [25], which relays fine leaves to the image capturing module [20].

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the second motor [32] controls the speed of the first conveyor [24], and the first motor controls the speed of the feed hopper [10].

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the first motor [31], second motor [32], and third motor [33] are induction motors.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the portable device is a laptop, ipad, PC, tablet, smart phone or any other computer implementable device.

It is yet another aspect of the present invention to provide a method of automatic counting of fine leaf, comprising steps:
receiving the leaves as a bunch by a feed hopper [10] for quality determination;
transmitting the leaves as a bunch from the feed hopper [10] to a first vibrator [22] and to a second vibrator [23];
separation and spreading of the individual fine leaves from the leaves as a bunch by the vibrators [22, 23];
supplying the individual fine leaves from the second vibrator [23] to a first conveyor [24] of low speed followed by conveying of the fine leaves to a second conveyor [25] of high speed;
subjecting the fine leaves to the second conveyor [25] to the image capturing module [20] for capturing of the leaves images in real time;
conveying the leaves image data to the control unit;
processing the leaves image data by the portable device comprising analyzing the leaves image data with standard images in the database by the analytical module and generating of the results to generate a report.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the first conveyor [24] operates at the speed of 50-60 rpm.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic fine leaf count device, wherein the second conveyor [25] operates at the speed of 80-90 rpm.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The advantages and features of the present invention will be more readily apparent by persons skilled in the art when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings listed below.
Figure 1: Illustrates the transverse sectional view of the automatic fine leaf count device [100] according to embodiments of the present invention.
Figure 2: Illustrates the automatic fine leaf count device [100] depicting the speed control unit comprising the motors.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS

The present invention as embodied by "An automatic fine leaf count device and method thereof" succinctly fulfills the above-mentioned need[s] in the art. The present invention has objective[s] arising as a result of the above-mentioned need[s], said objective[s] being enumerated below. In as much as the objective[s] of the present invention are enumerated, it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, the enumerated objective[s] are not exhaustive of the present invention in its entirety, and are enclosed solely for the purpose of illustration. Further, the present invention encloses within its scope and purview, any structural alternative[s] and/or any functional equivalent[s] even though, such structural alternative[s] and/or any functional equivalent[s] are not mentioned explicitly herein or elsewhere, in the present disclosure. The present invention therefore encompasses also, any improvisation[s]/modification[s] applied to the structural alternative[s]/functional alternative[s] within its scope and purview. The present invention may be embodied in other specific form[s] without departing from the essential attributes thereof.

Throughout this specification, the use of the word "comprise" and variations such as "comprises" and "comprising" may imply the inclusion of an element or elements not specifically recited.

The present invention discloses in its embodiments an automatic fine leaf count device [100]. The automatic fine leaf count device [100] comprises: a feed hopper[10] and outlet bin [30], one or more vibrators [22, 23], an AI based image capturing module [20], one or more conveyors, a speed control unit (26) comprising one or more motors [31, 32, 33], a control unit, a portable device and the portable device includes an analytical module [14].

The feed hopper [10] is configured to accept the feed which is leaves. As illustrated in Figure 1, the hopper is cone shaped The feed hopper is configured for receiving leaves as a bunch, and leads into a first vibrator [22], the first vibrator leads to the second vibrator [23] connected in parallel below the feed hopper [10] for separating the individual fine leaves from the bunch; one or more conveyors [24, 25] driven by a second motor [32] and third motor [33] for receiving and transferring the separated individual fine leaves to an outlet bin [30], wherein a first conveyor [24] is positioned to receive the separated individual fine leaves from a second vibrator [23] and second conveyor [25] is positioned to receive the separated individual fine leaves from the first conveyor [24] and transfer it to the outlet bin [30]. The vibrator is connected to a first conveyor which is a slow conveyor [24]. The slow conveyor leads to a fast conveyor [25]. The speed of the conveyors and the vibrator is controlled by speed control unit [26] comprising a first motor [31], a second motor [32] and a third motor [33]. The feed once dropped into the hopper [10] travels from the first vibrator [22] to the second vibrator [23] and to the first conveyor [24] followed by the second conveyor [25]. The vibrators [22, 23] are provided such that the feed of the plant parts dropped into the hopper is evenly distributed on the conveyor belts for exposure to the image capturing module [20]. The feed hopper [10] is controlled by the third induction motor [33] and is connected to the first [31] and the second vibrator [32]. The first motor [31] controls speed of the second conveyor [25] that relays fine leaves to the image capturing module [20], the second motor [32] controls the speed of the first conveyor [24], and the third motor controls the speed of the first [22] and the second vibrator [23]. The first motor [31], second motor [32], and third motor [33] are connected to the power source through a speed control unit. The image capturing module [20] is positioned above the second conveyor [25] for capturing real time images of the separated plant parts, wherein the image capturing module [20] comprises an image capturing device connected with a wired or wireless module. A portable device connected to the image capturing device through the wired or wireless module, and the portable device includes an analytical module [14]. The portable device is configured to have a pre-stored database of standard images for comparison to the real time images captured by the image capturing device of the image capturing unit [20]. The analytical module [14] in the portable device compares the real-time images with the standard images in the pre-stored database and grades the plant parts for quality.

The inventiveness of the invention lies in the ability of the device to capture the images real time as the leaves traverse on the conveyor belt. The images captured by a camera [not shown in the figure] is stored in a database in the portable device [not shown]. The images are captured real time and conveyed to the image capturing unit [20]. The images are further conveyed portable device, which includes an analytical module [14]. The analytical module [14] is configured to compare the real time images with the standard images in the database and generates a report or an output of the quality. For eg. The image capturing unit [20] will capture the leaves image and translates image attributes to numerical data. This is transmitted thru API call to FLC software loaded in a PC (analogous to a portable device) connected to the FLC system. Here the PC is the computer laptop, ipad, mobile or any other computer implementable device with a database. The numerical data is stored in the database in the FLC software. The FLC analysis is done by executing the Analytics software loaded in a PC connected to the FLC system.

The quality parameters are chosen from number of fine leaves. The AI is a computer implemented method wherein the processor has programmes which when executed perform the steps of capturing, conveying and analyzing the real time images.

The device can automatically count fine leaves. The device may also find application in identification of any image based state of the plant parts. For e.g. disease state of leaves based on the standard set of images of a healthy leaf. Diseased leaf based on the image comparison can be identified by the automatic fine leaf count device [100]. In a preferred embodiment the invention discloses a device and method for monitoring the quality of Tea Leaves, which is discussed as Example 1.

Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a method of automatic counting of fine leaf, comprising steps:
a) receiving the leaves as a bunch by a feed hopper [10] for counting fine leaf;
b) transmitting the leaves as a bunch from the feed hopper [10] to a first vibrator [22] and to a second vibrator [23];
c) separation and spreading of the individual fine leaves from the leaves as a bunch by the vibrators [22, 23];
d) supplying the individual fine leaves from the second vibrator [23] to a first conveyor [24] of low speed followed by conveying of the leaves to a second conveyor [25] of high speed;
e) subjecting the fine leaves to the second conveyor [25] to the image capturing module [20] for capturing of the leaves images in real time;
f) conveying the leaves image data to the control unit;
g) processing the leaves image data by the portable device comprising analyzing the leaves image data with standard images in the database by the analytical module and generating of the results to generate a report.

In the preferred embodiment, the first conveyor [24] operates at the speed of 50-60 rpm.

In the preferred embodiment, the second conveyor [25] operates at the speed of 80-90 rpm.

EXAMPLE 1:
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses an automatic fine leaf count device [100], for the counting of fine Tea Leaves. Fine Tea leaves count is determined using the automatic fine leaf count device [100] as disclosed in the previous embodiments. This method automatically determines the fine leaf count without human intervention, removing subjectively, reducing the processing time and improving overall accuracy.

Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a method of automatic counting of fine leaf, comprising steps:
a) receiving by a feed hopper [10] the tea leaves for counting of fine leaf;
b) transmitting of the tea leaves from the feed to a first vibrator [22] and to a second vibrator [23];
c) separation and spreading of the fine tea leaves by the vibrators [22, 23];
d) supplying the individual fine leaves from the second vibrator [23] to a first conveyor [24] of low speed followed by conveying of the leaves to a second conveyor [25] of high speed;
e) subjecting the fine leaves to the second conveyor [25] to the image capturing module [20] for capturing of the leaves images in real time;
f) conveying the leaves image data to the control unit; and
g) processing the leaves image data by the portable device comprising analyzing the leaves image data with standard images in the database by the analytical module and generating of the results to generate a report,
wherein the function of both the vibrators [22, 23] is to separate the entangled and overlapping twigs and leaves into separate entities such that the image capturing module [20] can capture the image perfectly to quantify its attributes.

Advantages:
a) Assess leaf quality accurately and automatically in short period of time.
b) Cost effective solution.
, Claims:WE CLAIM:
1.An automatic fine leaf count device [100], comprising:
a feed hopper[10] driven by a first motor [31] for receiving leaves as a bunch;
one or more vibrators [22, 23] respectively connected in parallel below the feed hopper [10] for separating the individual leaves from the bunch;
one or more conveyors [24, 25] driven by a second motor [32] and third motor [33] for receiving and transferring the separated individual fine leaves to an outlet bin [30], wherein a first conveyor [24] is positioned to receive the separated individual leaves from a second vibrator [23] and second conveyor [25] is positioned to receive the separated individual fine leaves from the first conveyor [24] and transfer it to the outlet bin [30]; and
an image capturing module [20] positioned above the second conveyor [25] for capturing real time images of the separated fine leaves, wherein the image capturing module [20] comprises an image capturing device connected with a wired or wireless module; and
a portable device connected to the image capturing device through the wired or wireless module, wherein the portable device includes an analytical module [14],
wherein the portable device is configured to have a pre-stored database of standard images for comparison to the real time images captured by the image capturing device of the image capturing unit [20],
wherein the analytical module [14] in the portable device compares the real-time images with the standard images in the pre-stored database and counts the fine leaves.

2. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the analytical module [14] in the portable device is configured to count the fine leaves.

3. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the analytical module [14] is an FLC (Fine/Coarse leaf Content) analysis unit.

4. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first motor [31], second motor [32], and third motor [33] are connected to the power source through a speed control unit.

5. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the third motor [31] controls speed of the second conveyor [25], which relays fine leaves to the image capturing module [20].

6. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second motor [32] controls the speed of the first conveyor [24], and the first motor controls the speed of the feed hopper [10].

7. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first motor [31], second motor [32], and third motor [33] are induction motors.

8. The automatic fine leaf count device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the portable device is a laptop, ipad, PC, tablet, smart phone or any other computer implementable device.

9. A method of automatic counting of fine leaf, comprising steps:
a. receiving the leaves as a bunch by a feed hopper [10] for counting of fine leaves;
b. transmitting the leaves as a bunch from the feed hopper [10] to a first vibrator [22] and to a second vibrator [23];
c. separation and spreading of the individual fine leaves from the leaves as a bunch by the vibrators [22, 23];
d. supplying the individual fine leaves from the second vibrator [23] to a first conveyor [24] of low speed followed by conveying of the fine leaves to a second conveyor [25] of high speed;
e. subjecting the fine leaves to the second conveyor [25] to the image capturing module [20] for capturing of the leaves images in real time;
f. conveying the leaves image data to the control unit; and
g. processing the leaves image data by the portable device comprising analyzing the leaves image data with standard images in the database by the analytical module and generating of the results to generate a report.

10. The method of automatic counting of fine leaf as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first conveyor [24] operates at the speed of 50-60 rpm.

11. The method of automatic counting of fine leaf as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second conveyor [25] operates at the speed of 80-90 rpm.