US Patent Issued to Precision Planting on June 23 for "Particle counting apparatus, systems and methods" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,663,360, issued on June 23, was assigned to Precision Planting LLC (Tremont, Ill.).

"Particle counting apparatus, systems and methods" was invented by Chad E. Plattner (Tremont, Ill.) and Philip Steiner (Tremont, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In one embodiment a first light plane is generated across the passageway by a first LED emitter array. A corresponding photodiode receiver array detects particles passing through a first number of light channels comprising the first light plane. In a second embodiment a second light plane is generated across the passageway at 90 degrees from the first light plane and longitudinally offset from...