To recognize sorts of various articles with high accuracy with a simple device by picking up the images of an article in both the upper and side directions and obtaining the three-dimensional picture information of the article from both the image pickup signals and thus determining its sort.
Detection signals from sensors 2, 3 are read so as to detect a waste domestic electric appliance 9 and to determine its height and then, a conveyer is stopped by outputting a stop signal. When the waste domestic electric appliance 9 is brought into the visual field of an upper camera 5, the operation is switched to the upper camera 5 and its picture signal is stored into a picture memory. The height of the disposed domestic electric appliance 9 is determined by a detection signal only from the lower position sensors 2 or the upper position sensors 3 and the operation is switched to the input of the image information from a side lower camera 7 or a side upper camera 6 according to the height. This image information is stored into the picture memory. The stored upper surface picture and the side surface picture are undergone edge emphasis processing and straight line extraction processing and straight lines that form a closed region are extracted from the extracted straight lines so that the external form and the size of the waste domestic electric appliance 9 are estimated and thereby its assortment is determined.
ISHII TOSHINAO
SATO TOSHITAKA
