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Method and apparatus for shelf edge detection

  • US 10,489,677 B2
  • Filed: 09/07/2017
  • Issued: 11/26/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2017
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of detecting a shelf edge by an imaging controller, comprising:

  • obtaining, by the imaging controller, an image depicting a shelf;

    increasing an intensity of a foreground subset of image pixels in the image, wherein each pixel in the foreground subset of pixels has an initial intensity that exceeds an upper intensity threshold, and decreasing an intensity of a background subset of pixels in the image, wherein each pixel in the background subset of pixels has an initial intensity that is below a lower intensity threshold;

    responsive to the increasing and the decreasing, (i) determining gradients for each of the pixels and (ii) selecting a candidate set of the pixels based on the gradients;

    overlaying a plurality of shelf candidate lines on the image derived from the candidate set of pixels, wherein overlaying the plurality of shelf candidate lines comprises;

    assigning each pixel in the candidate set to one of a plurality of bins, each bin corresponding to a line,selecting candidate subsets of the pixels assigned to respective bins having pixel populations exceeding a population threshold, andgenerating a shelf candidate line from each candidate subset of pixels;

    identifying a pair of the shelf candidate lines satisfying a predetermined sequence of intensity transitions; and

    generating a shelf edge bounding box corresponding to the pair of shelf candidate lines.

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