ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,327,393, issued on June 10, was assigned to Standard Stone Inc. (Houston).

"System and method for capturing consistent standardized photographs and using photographs for categorizing products" was invented by Arash Shushtarian (Houston).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system and method are disclosed for ensuring quality photos and categorization of stone products slab, panel, or tile (SPTs). The system photographs or scans each SPT in a consistent and standardized process that controls the camera, lens, lighting, lighting intensity, and distance between these components and the SPT being photographed or scanned. The photos are used to ca...