Apparatus, method and article for evaluating a stack of objects in an image
First Claim
1. A method of computationally processing images of areas which may contain objects, the method comprising:
- acquiring a pixelated color image of an area as a set of pixilated color image data at least temporarily stored in at least one processor-readable medium;
computationally preprocessing by at least one processor the set of pixelated color image data for at least a portion of the area to produce a set of two color contour image data that represents at least the portion of the pixilated color image, wherein a first color of the two color contour image data corresponds to contour pixels and a second color of the two color contour image corresponds to non-contour pixels;
computationally processing by the at least one processor the set of two color contour image data to find a location of a bottom of a stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data and to find a location of a top of the stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data, if any objects are in the at least portion of the area, wherein the stack of objects includes at least one object if any objects are in the at least portion of the area;
computationally determining by the at least one processor a total number of objects in the stack, if any based at least in part on a knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects and the location of the top of the stack of objects;
computationally processing by the at least one processor a portion of the set of pixelated color image data based on the knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects and the location of the top of the stack of objects to respectively classify each object in the stack of objects into one of a defined set of color classes; and
computationally determining by the at least one processor a cumulative total value of the stack of objects based at least in part on the color class to which each of the objects in the stack of objects is classified.
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Abstract
An object evaluation system may determine a value for a stack of objects that appear in a pixelated color image. To determine the value of the stack of objects, the evaluation system preprocess at least a portion of the pixelated color image to produce a set of two color contour data, processes the two color contour data to identify a location of a top and a bottom of the stack (if any), and locates, for each of the objects in the stack, a respective set of color pixels from the pixelated color image corresponding to each object based on the identified locations of the top and bottom of the stack. Each of the objects in the stack are then classified into a color classification based on the object'"'"'s respective set of color pixels, and the value of the object is determined based on a known correspondence between the color classification and a value. The cumulative value of the stack is determined by summing the determined values for each of the objects in the stack.
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Citations
48 Claims
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1. A method of computationally processing images of areas which may contain objects, the method comprising:
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acquiring a pixelated color image of an area as a set of pixilated color image data at least temporarily stored in at least one processor-readable medium; computationally preprocessing by at least one processor the set of pixelated color image data for at least a portion of the area to produce a set of two color contour image data that represents at least the portion of the pixilated color image, wherein a first color of the two color contour image data corresponds to contour pixels and a second color of the two color contour image corresponds to non-contour pixels; computationally processing by the at least one processor the set of two color contour image data to find a location of a bottom of a stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data and to find a location of a top of the stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data, if any objects are in the at least portion of the area, wherein the stack of objects includes at least one object if any objects are in the at least portion of the area; computationally determining by the at least one processor a total number of objects in the stack, if any based at least in part on a knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects and the location of the top of the stack of objects; computationally processing by the at least one processor a portion of the set of pixelated color image data based on the knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects and the location of the top of the stack of objects to respectively classify each object in the stack of objects into one of a defined set of color classes; and computationally determining by the at least one processor a cumulative total value of the stack of objects based at least in part on the color class to which each of the objects in the stack of objects is classified. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A system, comprising:
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at least one image capturing device configured to acquire a pixelated color image of an area as a set of pixelated color image data; and at least one object evaluation computing system having at least one processor and at least one storage medium that at least temporarily stores a the set of pixelated color image data, the object evaluation computing system configured to; preprocess using the at least one processor the set of pixelated color image data for at least a portion of the area to produce a set of two color contour image data that represents at least the portion of the pixilated color image; process using the at least one processor the set of two color contour image data to find a location of a bottom of a stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data and to find a location of a top of the stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data, if any objects are in the at least portion of the area, wherein the stack of objects includes at least one object if any objects are in the at least portion of the area; determine using the at least one processor a total number of objects in the stack, if any based at least in part on a knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects and the location of the top of the stack of objects; process using the at least one processor a portion of the set of pixelated color image data based on the knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects and the location of the top of the stack of objects to respectively classify each object in the stack of objects into one of a defined set of color classes; and determine using the at least one processor a cumulative total value of the stack of objects based at least in part on the color class to which each of the objects in the stack of objects is classified. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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Specification