System and method for whiteboard scanning to obtain a high resolution image
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented process for converting the contents of a planar object into a high-resolution image, comprising the process actions of:
- acquiring a sequence of images of portions of a planar object which have been captured in a prescribed pattern and wherein each subsequent image overlaps a previous image in said pattern;
extracting points of interest in each image;
matching said points of said interest between each pair of successive images thereby creating a set of point matches;
computing a projective mapping between each pair of successive images using a least median squares technique which detects both false point matches and simultaneously estimates a homography matrix in order to determine corresponding pixel locations in the images, wherein said computing a projective mapping comprises,(a) inputting a first image and a second image;
(b) drawing m random subsamples of a specified number of at least four different point matches of said set of point matches;
(c) for each subsample J, computing a homograph matrix Hj;
(d) for each Hj, determining the median of the squared residuals, denoted by Mj, with respect to the whole set of point matches, where the squared residual for match i is given by ∥
m21−
{circumflex over (m)}1i∥
2 where {circumflex over (m)}1i is point m1i transferred to the second image by Hj;
(e) retaining the estimate Hj for which Mj is minimal among all m Mj'"'"'s;
(f) computing a robust standard deviation estimate {circumflex over (σ
)};
(g) declaring a point match as a false match if its residual is larger than k {circumflex over (σ
)}, where k is set to a prescribed value;
(h) discarding the false matches and re-estimating H by minimizing the sum of squared errors where the summation is over all good matches; and
(i) repeating process actions (a) through (h) until all images of the sequence of images have been processed; and
generating a composite image from said sequence of images using said projective mapping.
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Abstract
This invention is directed toward a system and method for scanning a scene or object such as a whiteboard, paper document or similar item. More specifically, the invention is directed toward a system and method for obtaining a high-resolution image of a whiteboard or other object with a low-resolution camera. The system and method of the invention captures either a set of snapshots with overlap or a continuous video sequence, and then stitches them automatically into a single high-resolution image. The stitched image can finally be exported to other image processing systems and methods for further enhancement.
29 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented process for converting the contents of a planar object into a high-resolution image, comprising the process actions of:
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acquiring a sequence of images of portions of a planar object which have been captured in a prescribed pattern and wherein each subsequent image overlaps a previous image in said pattern; extracting points of interest in each image; matching said points of said interest between each pair of successive images thereby creating a set of point matches; computing a projective mapping between each pair of successive images using a least median squares technique which detects both false point matches and simultaneously estimates a homography matrix in order to determine corresponding pixel locations in the images, wherein said computing a projective mapping comprises, (a) inputting a first image and a second image; (b) drawing m random subsamples of a specified number of at least four different point matches of said set of point matches; (c) for each subsample J, computing a homograph matrix Hj; (d) for each Hj, determining the median of the squared residuals, denoted by Mj, with respect to the whole set of point matches, where the squared residual for match i is given by ∥
m21−
{circumflex over (m)}1i∥
2 where {circumflex over (m)}1i is point m1i transferred to the second image by Hj;(e) retaining the estimate Hj for which Mj is minimal among all m Mj'"'"'s; (f) computing a robust standard deviation estimate {circumflex over (σ
)};(g) declaring a point match as a false match if its residual is larger than k {circumflex over (σ
)}, where k is set to a prescribed value;(h) discarding the false matches and re-estimating H by minimizing the sum of squared errors where the summation is over all good matches; and (i) repeating process actions (a) through (h) until all images of the sequence of images have been processed; and generating a composite image from said sequence of images using said projective mapping. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for converting markings on a planar object into a high resolution image, the system comprising:
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a general purpose computing device; and a computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the corrupting device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to, acquire a sequence of images of portions of a planar object having been captured in a prescribed pattern, each subsequent image overlapping a previous image in said pattern; extract points of interest in each image in said sequence; match said points of said interest between two successive images in said sequence thereby creating a set of point matches; compute a projective mapping between each set of two successive images in said sequence of images using a east median squares technique which detects both false point matches and simultaneously estimates a homography matrix in order to determine corresponding pixel locations in the images of each set, therein said computing a projective mapping comprises, (a) inputting a first image and a second image; (b) drawing m random subsamples of a specified number of at least four different point matches of said set of point matches; (c) for each subsample J, computing a homography matrix HJ; (d) for each HJ, determining the median of th squared residuals, denoted by MJ, with respect to the whole set of point matches, where the squared residual for match j is given by ∥
m2i−
{circumflex over (m)}1i∥
2 where {circumflex over (m)}1i is point m1i transferred to the second image by HJ;(e) retaining the estimate HJ for which MJ is minimal among all m MJ'"'"'s; (f) computing a robust standard deviation estimated {circumflex over (σ
)};(g) declaring a point match as a false match if its residual is larger than k {circumflex over (σ
)}, where k is set to a prescribed value;(h) discarding the false matches and re-estimating H by minimizing the sum of squared errors where the summation is over all good matches; and (i) repeating process actions (a) through (h) until all images of the sequence of images have been processed; and generate a composite image from said images using said projective mapping. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for converting a series of low resolution images of portions of a planar object into a high resolution image of said object, said computer executable instructions causing a computer to execute the method comprising:
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acquiring a series of images of the depicting portions of the same scene; extracting points of interest in each image of said series of images; matching said points of interest in each image of said series of images with the image preceding said image in said series of images thereby creating a set of point matches; using a least median squares technique which detects both false point matches and simultaneously estimates a homography matrix to calculate a homography between each image of said series of images with the image preceding said image in said series of images, wherein said calculating a homography comprises, (a) inputting a first image and a second image; (b) drawing m random subsamples of a specified number of at least for different point matches of said set of point matches; (c) for each subsample J, computing a homography matrix Hj; (d) for each HJ, determining the median of the squared residuals, denoted by MJ, with respect to the whole set of point matches, where the squared residual for match i is given by ∥
m2i−
{circumflex over (m)}1i is point m1i transferred to the second image by HJ;(e) retaining the estimate HJ for which MJ is minimal among all m MJ'"'"'s; (f) computing a robust standard deviation estimate {circumflex over (σ
)};(g) declaring a point match as a false match if its residual is larger than k{circumflex over (σ
)}, where k is set to a prescribed value;(h) discarding the false matches and re-estimating H by minimizing the sum of squared errors matches; and (i) repeating process actions (a) through (h) until all images of the sequence of images have been processed; and stitching each image in said series of images together using said homographies to create a composite image. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification