ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,339,238, issued on June 24, was assigned to Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).
"Inspection device and inspection method" was invented by Shozo Oshio (Osaka, Japan), Mitsuru Nitta (Kyoto, Japan) and Ryosuke Shigitani (Osaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided is an inspection device including: a light source including a phosphor; and a photodetector, and detecting, using the photodetector, reflected light of the inspection light reflected by the inspection object. A spectral distribution of the inspection light has at least one maximum value derived from fluorescence emitted by the phosphor, and...