MOBILE FAX MACHINE WITH IMAGE STITCHING AND DEGRADATION REMOVAL PROCESSING

• US 20130027757A1
• Filed: 07/29/2011
• Published: 01/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Te-Won, Hwang, Kyuwoong, You, Kisun, Kim, Taesu, Koo, Hyung-Il
• Application Number:
  US13/194,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20130027757A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00183 Photography assistance, e.g. displaying suggestions to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/19594 using a television camera or a still video camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/387 Composing, repositioning or otherwise geometrically modifying originals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3876 Recombination of partial images to recreate the original image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0414 Scanning an image in a series of overlapping zones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/043 Viewing the scanned area
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0436 Scanning a picture-bearing surface lying face up on a support H04N2201/0434 takes precedence; using cylindrical picture bearing surfaces H04N1/06; with manual scanning H04N1/107
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0458 Additional arrangements for improving or optimising scanning resolution or quality

Abstract

A method of scanning an image of a document with a portable electronic device includes interactively indicating in substantially real time on a user interface of the portable electronic device, an instruction for capturing at least one portion of an image to enhance quality. The indication is in response to identifying degradation associated with the portion(s) of the image. The method also includes capturing the portion(s) of the image with the portable electronic device according to the instruction. The method further includes stitching the captured portion(s) of the image in place of a degraded portion of a reference image corresponding to the document, to create a corrected stitched image of the document.

Claims

1. A method of scanning an image of a document with a portable electronic device, comprising:

interactively indicating in substantially real time on a user interface of the portable electronic device, an instruction for capturing at least one portion of the image to enhance quality, in response to identifying degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image;

capturing the at least one portion of the image with the portable electronic device according to the instruction; and

stitching the at least one captured portion of the image in place of a degraded portion of a reference image corresponding to the document, to create a corrected stitched image of the document.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of wirelessly transmitting the corrected stitched image of the document and storing the corrected stitched image of the document.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying optical character recognition to the corrected stitched image.

4. The method of claim 1, in which identifying the degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image is based on at least one of geometric correction features, photometric correction features, radial correction features, and vignetting correction features.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the interactively indicating, capturing and stitching to enhance quality of the corrected stitched image of the document.

6. The method of claim 1, in which identifying the degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image comprises an estimated homography process.

7. The method of claim 1, in which identifying the degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image further comprises:

computing at least one feature, comprising;

at least one of sharpness, contrast, color, intensity, and an edge of the image; and

comparing the at least one computed feature with at least one computed feature of a high quality document.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting edges of the image and applying a transformation process based on the detected edges.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising manually updating input of the image to facilitate locating edges of the image.

10. An apparatus for scanning an image of a document with a portable electronic device, comprising:

means for interactively indicating in substantially real time on a user interface of the portable electronic device, an instruction for capturing at least one portion of the image to enhance quality, in response to identifying degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image;

means for capturing the at least one portion of the image with the portable electronic device according to the instruction; and

means for stitching the at least one captured portion of the image in place of a degraded portion of a reference image corresponding to the document, to create a corrected stitched image of the document.

11. An apparatus for scanning an image of a document with a portable electronic device, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured;

to interactively indicate in substantially real time on a user interface of the portable electronic device, an instruction for capturing at least one portion of the image to enhance quality, in response to identifying degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image;

to capture the at least one portion of the image with the portable electronic device according to the instruction; and

to stitch the at least one captured portion of the image in place of a degraded portion of a reference image corresponding to the document, to create a corrected stitched image of the document.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to at least one of wirelessly transmit the corrected stitched image of the document and store the corrected stitched image of the document.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to apply optical character recognition to the corrected stitched image.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to identify the degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image based on at least one of geometric correction features, photometric correction features, radial correction features, and vignetting correction features.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to repeat the interactively indicating, capturing and stitching to enhance quality of the corrected stitched image of the document.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to identify the degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image by an estimated homography process.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to identify the degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image by:

computing at least one feature, comprising;

at least one of sharpness, contrast, color, intensity, and an edge of the image; and

comparing the at least one computed feature with at least one computed feature of a high quality document.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to detect edges of the image and apply a transformation process based on the detected edges.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the at least one processor is further configured to manually update input of the image to facilitate locating edges of the image.

20. A computer program product for scanning an image of a document with a portable electronic device, comprising:

a computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising;

program code to interactively indicate in substantially real time on a user interface of the portable electronic device, an instruction for capturing at least one portion of the image to enhance quality, in response to identifying degradation associated with the at least one portion of the image;

program code to capture the at least one portion of the image with the portable electronic device according to the instruction; and

program code to stitch the at least one captured portion of the image in place of a degraded portion of a reference image corresponding to the document, to create a corrected stitched image of the document.