Gesture Processing with Low Resolution Images with High Resolution Processing for Optical Character Recognition for a Reading Machine

• US 20100074471A1
• Filed: 11/16/2009
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Federation of the Blind
• Original Assignee: K-NFB Reading Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Gashel, James, Gibson, Lucy, Lvovsky, Lev, Albrecht, Paul, Kurzweil, Raymond C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,150,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields

Abstract

A portable reading machine that operates in several modes and performs image preprocessing to prior to optical character recognition. The portable reading machine receives a low resolution image and a high resolution image of a scene and processing the low resolution image to recognize a user-initiated gesture using a gesturing item that indicates a command from the user to the reading machine and the high resolution image to recognize text in the image of the scene, according to the command from the user to the machine.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method of operating a portable reading machine, the method comprising:

processing by a computing device in the reading machine, an image, to recognize a user-initiated gesture using a gesturing item the gesture indicating a command from the user to the reading machine when recognizing text in the image, the command specifying an order by which the reading machine navigates through named portions of a hierarchical document in the image; and

applying optical character recognition to recognize text in the hierarchical document in the image in an order determined according to the command.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the gesturing item is a portion of the user'"'"'s hand or an item held by the user and the method further comprises:

receiving a low resolution image to process the gesturing item and a high resolution image to recognize text.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein receiving a low resolution image comprises receiving a series of low resolution images;

and

processing the series of low resolution images to detect the presence of the gesturing item in the series of images.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein processing comprises:

applying pattern-recognition processing to the low resolution image to detect one of a set of pre-defined gestures that are interpreted by the reading machine, as commands to the machine.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein processing different sections comprises:

retrieving a template that a scene in the image is mapped to; and

processing the template with the gesturing commands to process portions of the scene corresponding to named parts of the template.

27. The computer program product of claim 21 wherein the gesturing item is a portion of the user'"'"'s hand or an item held by the user and the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

receive a low resolution image to process the gesturing item and

receive a high resolution image to recognize text.

28. The computer program product of claim 27 wherein instructions to receive a low resolution image comprises instructions to

receive a series of low resolution images;

and

process the series of low resolution images to detect the presence of the gesturing item in the series of images.

29. The computer program product of claim 27 further comprises instructions to:

apply pattern-recognition processing to the low resolution image to detect one of a set of pre-defined gestures that are interpreted by the reading machine, as commands to the machine.

26. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for operating a portable reading machine, the computer program product comprising instructions to:

process in the reading machine, an image, to recognize a user-initiated gesture using a gesturing item the gesture indicating a command from the user to the reading machine when recognizing text in the image, the command specifying an order by which the reading machine navigates through named portions of a hierarchical document in the image; and

apply optical character recognition to recognize text in the hierarchical document in the image in an order determined according to the command.

30. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein instructions to process different sections, comprises instructions to:

retrieve a template that a scene in the image is mapped to; and

process the template with the gesturing commands to process portions of the scene corresponding to named parts of the template.

31. A portable reading machine comprising:

a computing device;

an image input device coupled to the computing device for capturing low resolution images and high resolution images; and

a computer readable medium storing a computer program product for operating a portable reading machine, the computer program product comprising instructions to;

receive a low resolution image to process the gesturing item and receive a high resolution image to recognize text;

process the low resolution image to recognize a user-initiated gesture using a gesturing item that indicates a command from the user to the reading machine;

process the high resolution image to recognize text in the image, according to the command from the user to process the image as a hierarchical document;

process different named sections of the image for speech synthesis in an order determined by the hierarchical document.

32. The machine of claim 31 wherein the instructions of the computer program product to receive a low resolution image, comprises instructions to

receive a series of low resolution images;

and

process the series of low resolution images to detect the presence of the gesturing item in the series of images.

33. The machine of claim 31 wherein the instructions of the computer program product, further comprises instructions to:

apply pattern-recognition processing to the low resolution image to detect one of a set of pre-defined gestures that are interpreted by the reading machine, as commands to the machine.

34. The machine of claim 31 wherein the instructions of the computer program product to process different sections, further comprises instructions to:

retrieve a template that a scene in the image is mapped to; and

process the template with the gesturing commands to process portions of the scene corresponding to named parts of the template.