received by the International Bureau on 22 August 2017 (22.08.2017)

1. Ά scanner apparatus for cased goods inspection comprising: at least one conveyor for advancing a case of goods past the scanner apparatus; at least one electromagnetic (EM) source configured to transmit a sheet of parallel propagating EM radiation illumination of predetermined width towards a vision system disposed to receive the EM radiation illumination from the at least one EM source; the vision system including a diffuser and at least one camera wherein: the diffuser diffuses the EM radiation illumination received from the at least one EM source so that the at least one camera captures the predetermined EM radiation illumination sheet width in entirety, and the at least one camera is configured to digitize images of at least a portion of the EM radiation illumination sheet so that the case of goods advanced by the at lea9t one conveyor through the transmitted EM radiation illumination sheet cast a shadow thereon; and a processor operably coupled to the at least one conveyor and vision system and including an image acquisition component configured to acquire the digitized images as the case of goods is advanced past the at least one camera, and an image combiner configured to selectively combine acquired digitized images into a combined image based on sustained input beam spatial intensity reduction below 'a first threshold; wherein the processor is configured to determine from the combined image dimensional measurements about the case of goods including one or more of length, width, height, angle, "real box, "max box" and "max bulge".

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, where the processor is configured so as to ascertain presence of the case of goods based on sustained input beam spatial intensity reduction below a second threshold discriminating presence of translucent shrink wrap disposed on product in the case of goods.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one conveyor is configured to advance the case of goods at a rate of advance, the image acquisition component being configured to acquire the digitized images at an acquisition rate proportional to the rate of advance of the case of goods.

4 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the image acquisition rate is synchronized by using an encoder or by a stepper motor drive circuit.

5. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one EM source comprises: a substantially point source lamp having an output light beam; an output beam shaper configured to redirect the output light beam into the sheet of collimated illumination having parallel light rays of the output light beam; and an optional mirror to reduce a foot print of the apparatus .

6. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the image acquisition component comprises an image cache storage.

7. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the vision system is configured to determine an ambient light intensity from a sample buffer of cached images .

8. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the vision system is configured to identify presence of debris on an input window of the vision system based on common pixels of same intensity across a number of digitized images.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7 or 8_/ wherein the image combiner is configured to selectively combine acquired digitised images into a potential product combined image if a number of pixels digitized in an image having a reduced intensity below the first predetermined threshold define an image width greater than a second threshold.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claims 7 to 9, wherein the image combiner is configured to selectively combine acquired digitized images forming the combined image if a number of pixels digitized across sequential images having reduced intensity below the first predetermined threshold and below a second threshold represent a predetermined combined image length,

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine dimensions from the combined image of: a first shape best fitting in the combined image, a second shape circumscribing the combined image, and differences between the first and second shapes .

12. The apparatus as claimed in claims 9 or 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine from the combined image an orientation angle of the case of goods with respect to the at least one conveyor.

13. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine from the combined image a distance of the case of goods from one side of the at least one conveyor.

14. Ά method. of inspecting cased goods comprising: advancing at least one case of goods on a conveyor; generating an illumination sheet of parallel illuminating rays with at least one electromagnetic source; capturing an image, formed by the illumination sheet passing through a diffuser, with at least one camera located so as to capture illumination from diffused parallel rays of the illumination sheet; where the image embodies a cased goods image that is generated by the case of goods moving between the at least one electromagnetic source and the at least one camera, where part of the parallel illuminating rays of the illumination sheet is at least partially blocked by the case of goods, thus generating a gray level image.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, where capturing comprises capturing a number of serial images, each new image is compared with a normalized intensity from a predetermined number of previously acquired images, and a cased goods is detected, with a processor, when there is a drop of intensity more than a predetermined threshold.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, where a combined image of the cased goods is constructed with the processor by adding a series of images.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, where various characteristics of the cased goods are computed based on the combined image of the cased goods including one or more of the length, the width, the height, the angle, the "real box", the "max box" and the "max bulge"

18. A scanner apparatus for cased goods inspection comprising: at least one conveyor for advancing a case of goods past the scanner apparatus; at least one electromagnetic (EM) source configured to transmit a sheet of parallel propagating EM radiation illumination of predetermined width towards a vision system disposed to receive the EM radiation illumination from the at least one EM source; the vision system including a diffuser and at least one camera wherein: the diffuser diffuses the EM radiation illumination received from the at least one EM source so that the at least one camera captures the predetermined EM radiation illumination sheet width in entirety; the at least one camera is configured to digitize images of at least a portion of the EM radiation illumination sheet so that the case of goods advanced by the at least one conveyor through the transmitted EM radiation illumination sheet cast a shadow thereon; and a processor operably coupled to the at least one conveyor and visions system and including an image acquisition component configured to acquire the digitized images as the case of goods is advanced past the camera, and an image combiner configured to selectively combine acquired images into a combined image based on sustained input beam spatial intensity reduction below a first threshold; wherein the processor is configured so as to ascertain presence of the case of goods based on sustained input beam spatial intensity reduction below a second threshold discriminating presence of translucent shrink wrap desired on product in the case of goods.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to determine from the combined image dimensional measurements about the case of goods including one or more of length, width, height, angle, "real box, "max box" and "max bulge".

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the at least one conveyor is configured bo advance the case of goods at a rate of advance, the image acquisition component being configured to acquire the digitized images at an acquisition rate proportional to the rate of advance of the case of goods, and wherein the image acquisition rate is synchronized by using an encoder or by a stepper motor drive circuit.

21. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 18 to 20, wherein the at least one EM source comprises: a substantially point source lamp having an output light beam; an output beam shaper configured to redirect the output light beam into the sheet of collimated illumination having parallel light rays of the output light beam; and an optional mirror to reduce a foot print of the apparatus .

22. The apparatus as claimed in any of claims 18 to 21, wherein the vision system is configured to identify presence of debris on an input window of the vision system based on common pixels of same intensity across a number of digitized images.

23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein the image combiner is configured to selectively combine acquired digitized images into a potential product combined image if a number of pixels digitized in an image having a reduced intensity below the first predetermined threshold define an image width greater than a second threshold.

24. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to determine dimensions from the combined image of a first shape best fitting in the combined image, a second shape circumscribing the combined image, and differences between the first and second shapes.