DECONVOLUTION OF DIGITAL IMAGES

• US 20140226878A1
• Filed: 04/16/2014
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhagwan, Varun, Liu, Timothy, Ormont, Justin, Underwood, Heather
• Granted Patent: US 9,508,116 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/146 the method including quality enhancement steps
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10004 Still image; Photographic image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/10 Selection of transformation methods according to the characteristics of the input images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/14 Transformations for image registration, e.g. adjusting or mapping for alignment of images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/20 Image preprocessing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1607 Correcting image deformation, e.g. trapezoidal deformation caused by perspective
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 using acquisition arrangements

Abstract

A method for deconvolution of digital images includes obtaining a degraded image from a digital sensor, a processor accepting output from the digital sensor and recognizing a distorted element within the image. The distorted element is compared with a true shape of the element to produce a degrading function. The degrading function is deconvolved from at least a portion of the image to improve image quality of the image. A method of indirectly decoding a barcode includes obtaining an image of a barcode using an optical sensor in a mobile computing device, the image comprising barcode marks and a textual character. The textual character is optically recognized and an image degrading characteristic is identified from the textual character. Compensating for the image degrading characteristic renders previously undecodable barcode marks decodable. A system for deconvolution of digital images is also included.

Claims

1. A method of indirectly decoding a barcode comprises:

obtaining an image of a barcode using an optical sensor in a mobile computing device, the image comprising barcode marks and textual characters;

optically recognizing a textual character;

identifying an image degrading characteristic from the textual character; and

compensating for the image degrading characteristic to render previously undecodable barcode marks decodable.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

overlaying the optically recognized textual character on portions of the image from which the optically recognized textual character was recognized; and

comparing the optically recognized textual character with the portions of the image from which the optically recognized textual character was recognized to produce a degrading function which represents the image degrading characteristic.

3. The method of claim 2, in which comparing the optically recognized textual character with the portions of the image from which the optically recognized textual character was recognized comprises performing a fast Fourier transform.

4. The method of claim 1, in which identifying an image degrading characteristic comprises quantifying the image degrading function as a point spread function.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the textual character is associated with the barcode marks and contains the same information that is encoded in the barcode marks.

6. The method of claim 4, in which information decoded from the barcode marks is verified against the optically recognized textual character.

7. A system for deconvolution of digital images comprising:

an optical sensor for acquiring an image of a scene;

an element identification module for identification of distorted elements within the image;

a degrading function calculation module for calculating a degrading function from the difference between portions of the image which contain distorted elements and undistorted elements obtained from a known element library; and

a deconvolution module for deconvolving the degrading function from at least a portion of the image and outputting an enhanced image.

8. The system of claim 7, in which the element identification module comprises an optical character recognition and the known element library comprises alpha numeric characters in a plurality of fonts.

9. The system of claim 7, in which the element identification module comprises a facial recognition function and the known element library comprises known faces.

10. A computer program product for image enhancement by deconvolution, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to recognize distorted text within a degraded image by performing optical character recognition on the distorted text to produce an optically recognized character;

computer readable program code configured to then compare the optically recognized character with the distorted text from which the optically recognized character was recognized to produce a degrading function; and

computer readable program code configured to deconvolve the degrading function from at least a portion of the image to improve the image quality.