METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECOGNIZING INFORMATION IN AN IMAGE

• US 20150163390A1
• Filed: 12/05/2014
• Published: 06/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hanwha Vision Company Limited (Hanwha Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Techwin Corporation (Hanwha Corporation)
• Inventors: LEE, Jaehoon, KIM, Hongwoo, JUNG, Joonggyun
• Granted Patent: US 10,142,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/141 Control of illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/054 photographing overspeeding vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/72 Combination of two or more compensation controls
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

A method and apparatus for recognizing information included in an image, e.g., a license plate number of a vehicle image. The method includes: detecting an ambient illuminance and determining a speed of a moving object; capturing, by an image capturer, image frames of the moving object according to at least one of a shutter opening time of the image capturer and an illuminance of an illuminator to illuminate the moving object which are set based on the detected ambient illuminance and the determined speed of the moving object; and extracting information of the moving object from the captured image frames.

Claims

1. A method of recognizing information included in an image, the method comprising:

detecting an ambient illuminance and determining a speed of a moving object;

capturing, by an image capturer, image frames of the moving object according to at least one of a shutter opening time of the image capturer and an illuminance of an illuminator to illuminate the moving object which are set based on the detected ambient illuminance and the determined speed of the moving object; and

extracting information of the moving object from the captured image frames.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting a trigger signal, controlling the image capturer to capture the image frames of the moving object, if the detected ambient illuminance is lower than a reference illuminance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the determined speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the determined speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the capturing the image frames is performed according to both the shutter opening time of the image capturer and the illuminance of the illuminator,

wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the determined speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

capturing, by another image capturer, a plurality of image frames per unit time based on the detected ambient illuminance when the moving object enters a predetermined area monitored by the other image capturer;

determining the speed of the moving object based on the plurality of image frames captured per unit time; and

outputting a trigger signal by the other image capturer to control the image capturer to capture the image frames of the moving object, based on the determined speed of the moving object.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining the speed of the moving object is performed by counting a number of image frames which includes the moving object from among the plurality of image frames captured per unit time by the other image capturer.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the determined speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

if the detected ambient illuminance is higher than a reference illuminance, capturing, by the other image capturer, the image frames of the moving object; and

extracting the information of the moving object from the image frames captured by the other image capturer without performing the capturing the plurality of image frames per unit time, the determining the speed of the moving object and the outputting the trigger signal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the illuminator comprises a plurality of light-emitting components, and

wherein the method further comprises:

determining a position of the moving object; and

capturing the image frames of the moving object by turning on only light-emitting components, corresponding to the determined position of the moving object, from among the plurality of light-emitting components

11. An apparatus for recognizing information included in an image, the apparatus comprising:

an image capturer configured to capture image frames of a moving object according to at least one of a shutter opening time of the image capturer and an illuminance of an illuminator to illuminate the moving object which are set based on an ambient illuminance and a speed of the moving object; and

a controller configured to extract information of the moving object from the captured image frames.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the image capturer is configured to capture the image frames of the moving object, if it is determined that the ambient illuminance is lower than a reference illuminance.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image capturer is configured to capture the image frames of the moving object according to both the shutter opening time of the image capturer and the illuminance of the illuminator,

wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the determined speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising another image capturer configured to capture a plurality of image frames per unit time based on the detected ambient illuminance when the moving object enters a predetermined area monitored by the other image capturer, the plurality of image frames captured per unit time being used to determine the speed of the moving object, and

wherein the other image capturer is further configured to output a trigger signal to control the image capturer to capture the image frames of the moving object, based on the determined speed of the moving object.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the speed of the moving object is determined by the other image capturer or the controller by counting a number of image frames which includes the moving object from among the plurality of image frames captured per unit time by the other image capturer.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the shutter opening time is set to be inversely proportional to the determined speed of the moving object, and

wherein the illuminance of the illuminator is set to be inversely proportional to the shutter opening time.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, if the detected ambient illuminance is higher than a reference illuminance, the other image capturer is configured to capture the image frames of the moving object, and extract the information of the moving object from the image frames captured by the other image capturer without having the image capturer perform the capturing the plurality of image frames per unit time and output the trigger signal.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising the illuminator which comprises a plurality of light-emitting components, and

wherein the other image capturer is further configured to determine a position of the moving object, and

wherein the image capturer is further configured to capture the image frames of the moving object according to the controller turning on only light-emitting components, corresponding to the determined position of the moving object, from among the plurality of light-emitting components.