MEASURING APPARATUS OF AMOUNT OF SOIL

PURPOSE:To measure the amount of soil with good accuracy by calculating the sectional area through image processing of a picked-up outline, multiplying said sectional area by a speed thereby to obtain the volume per unit time, and sequentially aggregating the volumes. CONSTITUTION:A video sensor 6 obtains monochromatic binary signals through an image processing function on the basis of an outline of soil and sands picked up by a video camera 2. The video sensor 6 determines an area occupied by a window W determined by a CRT display 7 as the position of the section where the soil and sands are optically cut. The video sensor 6 outputs the shadowed area in a fan shape as the monochromatic area with the area of the shielding plate 3 and a conveyor 1 removed. The processed signal from the video sensor 6 is, together with vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals, displayed on the display 7. At the same time, dots are counted by a counter 8, which is then input to a computer 9. The computer 9 takes in an output signal of a speed sensor 5, and operates total volume of soil based on the speed signal and the count of dots. The result is displayed on the display 7 and recorded by a printer 10.