GradeScan® and Perceptive Sight™ Intelligent Grading
All Lucidyne GradeScan® systems are now being shipped with Perceptive Sight™ Intelligent Grading, Lucidyne’s new Deep Learning software platform. Perceptive Sight™ is a quantum leap in lumber grading, optimizing value and opening up of new wood product markets. Using Artificial Intelligence, Perceptive Sight™ “learns” to grade lumber the same way a human learns: by looking at examples.
Lucidyne’s team of certified graders identify characteristics on thousands of each customers’ boards, and that information is fed into the Perceptive Sight™ Deep Learning platform. By analyzing these thousands of samples, Perceptive Sight™ learns to recognize each characteristic. It distinguished a bark encasement from a bark pocket. It is not misled by pitch-filled shakes in green Douglas Fir. Grease spots and blemishes are not mis-identified as defects. What’s more, Perceptive Sight™ reports the actual shape and orientation of the knothead.
With Deep Learning, the Perceptive Sight™ library is ever-expanding to cover the full range of demands. As a new characteristic shows up, we present examples, and the system learns the new defect on its own, without additional programming. This eliminates waiting for availability of software developers to analyze, differentiate and write code to define new defects. With Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence, the more examples Perceptive Sight™ sees, the more accurate and more inclusive it becomes.
Hankins, Inc.
A Case Study
The first GradeScan® with Perceptive Sight™ was installed in February of 2017 at Hankins, Inc. in Ripley Mississippi. Owner Harold Hankins has said about the system: “The reason we chose Lucidyne over other products out there is due to their ability to identify defects and process them in a way that is, in my opinion, better than anyone else in the field. I am very confident in this machine’s ability to grade all of our products. It’s very accurate and how they process their data into individual grades is top-notch.”
He cites other advantages: “Another reason we chose Lucidyne was GradeScan’s smaller physical footprint. It’s a linear pass through and the ability to do 1-inch through 6-inch thick timbers, and 4-inch to 12-inch widths is crucial to our operation. Being able to produce those thick, long 22 or 24-foot timbers with all those different combinations is a really big plus for us.”
Since the Hankins installation, other customers have reported similar results. One customer, after running GradeScan® for only three months, ordered another system for a second mill. Another customer, seeing results for the first Perceptive Sight GradeScan®, ordered two new GradeScans as well as two upgrades to Perceptive Sight™ for existing systems — all within the space of 5 weeks.
Perceptive Sight™ Intelligent Grading is revolutionizing the way lumber is graded. Call Lucidyne to learn more about how GradeScan®, with Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, will maximize your fiber and value recovery.