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;
determining a horizontal center of the stack of objects based on an overall concentration of contour pixels in the set of two color contour image data;
determining an estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects based on a mean/average height of an individual object of the stack rationalized for a distance between an image acquisition device used to acquire the pixelated color image and an expected location of the stack, said distance adjusted based on the location of the bottom of the stack at the determined horizontal center of the stack relative to the expected location of the stack of objects; and
subsequent to determining the horizontal center of the stack of objects and the estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects, 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, the location of the top of the stack of objects and the determined estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An evaluation system to determine a value of a stack of objects preprocess a 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, 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.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
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; determining a horizontal center of the stack of objects based on an overall concentration of contour pixels in the set of two color contour image data; determining an estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects based on a mean/average height of an individual object of the stack rationalized for a distance between an image acquisition device used to acquire the pixelated color image and an expected location of the stack, said distance adjusted based on the location of the bottom of the stack at the determined horizontal center of the stack relative to the expected location of the stack of objects; and subsequent to determining the horizontal center of the stack of objects and the estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects, 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, the location of the top of the stack of objects and the determined estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. 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, wherein computationally preprocessing by at least one processor to produce the set of two color contour image data further comprises eliminating extraneous pixels from the set of two color contour image data; 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; and 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. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A system, comprising:
-
at least one image capturing device that acquires 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 the set of pixelated color image data, wherein the object evaluation computing system; preprocesses 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 said preprocessing to produce the set of two color image data comprises; converts at least a portion of the set of the pixelated color image data to a set of gray scale image data, edge detection filters the set of gray scale image data to produce a set of contour image data, converts at least a portion of the set of contour image data to a set of black and white contour image data, converts a set of gray scale contour image data to a set of hue, saturation, and brightness (HSB) contour image data, and converts the set of HSB contour image data to the set of black and white contour image data; processes 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; and determines 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. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
Specification