System and method to automatically discriminate between different data types

• US 8,636,224 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2012
• Issued: 01/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Ynjiun P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Haupt, Kristy A
• Application Number:
  US13/493,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20120308091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 596 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.1, 235/494, 382/123, 382/264
• US Class Current: 235/494
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06028 using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0004 Hybrid readers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10 by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1413 1D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1417 2D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/22 by selection of a specific region containing or referencing a pattern; Locating or processing of specific regions to guide the detection or recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/413 Classification of content, e.g. text, photographs or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/30 Writer recognition; Reading and verifying signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2209/41 with means for the generation of identity documents
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/26 using a biometric sensor integrated in the pass
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence

Abstract

There is described a system and method for automatically discriminating between different types of data with an image reader. In brief overview of one embodiment, the automatic discrimination feature of the present image reader allows a human operator to aim a hand held image reader at a target that can contain a dataform and actuate the image reader. An autodiscrimination module in the image reader in one embodiment analyzes image data representative of the target and determines a type of data represented in the image data.

Claims

1. An image reader that automatically discriminates between data types, the image reader comprising:

an image collection module configured to collect image data representative of a target;

an autodiscrimination module in communication with the image collection module, the autodiscrimination module configured to automatically discriminate between a facial image biometric and a dataform; and

an I/O module in communication with at least the autodiscrimination module.

2. The image reader according to claim 1, wherein said autodiscrimination module comprises:

a dataform decoder module; and

an image processing and analysis module configured to perform a texture analysis of the image data and configured to classify the image data in response to the texture analysis.

3. The image reader according to claim 2, wherein the autodiscrimination module is configured to automatically discriminate between a signature and a dataform, and wherein the texture analysis includes testing the image data for characteristics indicative of a signature.

4. The image reader according to claim 3, wherein testing the image data for characteristics indicative of a signature includes at least testing the image data for the presence of curved elements.

5. The image reader according to claim 1, further comprising:

a housing configured to be hand held and oriented by a human operator, the housing enclosing the autodiscrimination module, the image collection module, and the I/O module; and

a trigger configured to be actuated to initiate the operation of the autodiscrimination module and the image collection module.

6. The image reader according to claim 1, wherein the autodiscrimination module is configured to automatically discriminate between a signature and a dataform.

7. The image reader according to claim 1, wherein the autodiscrimination module includes a generalized classifier module that employs a neural network and receives data from the feature extraction module.

8. The image reader according to claim 1, wherein the image data is image data of a first collected image, wherein the image reader is configured for identifying a bar code dataform in the first collected image and for examining image data representing a signature to identify a signature in the first collected image, the first collected image collected using the image collection module, the image reader further configured to attempt to decode the barcode dataform by processing image data of the first collected image and to output decoded barcode dataform data determined from the attempt to decode.

9. The image reader according to claim 1, wherein the image data is image data of a first collected image, wherein the image reader segments the first collected image into a plurality of regions, wherein the image reader for each region of the plurality of regions is configured to classify content of the region as a dataform if the region includes a dataform, and as a signature if the region includes a signature.

10. The image reader according to claim 1, wherein the image data is image data of a first collected image, wherein the image reader subjects image data of a first collected image to a decode attempt using a dataform decode module, the first collected image collected using the image collection module, wherein the image reader is configured so that responsive to decoding of the dataform by subjecting of the image data of a first collected image to a decode attempt the dataform decode module is disabled in a manner that for a subsequent image collected using the image collection module, the dataform decode module is not active to process image data for attempting to decode a dataform.

11. An image reader that automatically identifies different data types, the image reader comprising:

an image collection module configured to collect image data representative of a target;

wherein the image reader is configured for identifying a bar code dataform in a first collected image and for examining image data representing a signature to identify a signature in the first collected image, the first collected image collected using the image collection module, the image reader further configured to attempt to decode the barcode dataform by processing image data of the first collected image and to output decoded barcode dataform data determined from the attempt to decode.

12. The image reader of claim 11, wherein the image reader is hand held.

13. The image reader of claim 11, wherein the image reader is configured for storing into a memory signature image data responsive to the image reader identifying the signature.

14. The image reader of claim 13, wherein for performing of the storing the image reader stores the first collected image without cropping of image data external to the signature image data.

15. The image reader of claim 13, wherein for performing of the storing the image reader compresses the first collected image.

16. The image reader of claim 11, wherein the image reader is configured for generating a modified image by cropping image data external to the signature responsive to the image reader identifying the signature.

17. The image reader of claim 11, wherein the examining image data includes applying curvelet detector maps.

18. The image reader of claim 11, wherein the image reader segments the first collected image into a plurality of regions, wherein the image reader for each region of the plurality of regions is configured to classify content of the region as a dataform if the region includes a dataform, and as a signature if the region includes a signature.

19. A image reader that automatically identifies different data types, the image reader comprising:

an image collection module configured to collect image data representative of a target;

wherein the image reader segments a first collected image into a plurality of regions, wherein the image reader for each region of the plurality of regions is configured to classify content of the region as a dataform if the region includes a dataform, and as a signature if the region includes a signature, the first collected image collected using the image collection module.

20. The image reader of claim 19, wherein the image reader is hand held.

21. A image reader comprising:

an image collection module configured to collect image data representative of a target;

a dataform decode module;

wherein the image reader subjects image data of a first collected image to a decode attempt using the dataform decode module, the first collected image collected using the image collection module, wherein the image reader is configured so that responsive to decoding of the dataform by subjecting of the image data of a first collected image to a decode attempt the dataform decode module is disabled in a manner that for a subsequent image collected using the image collection module, the dataform decode module is not active to process image data for attempting to decode a dataform.

22. The image reader of claim 21, wherein the image reader includes a classifier that classifies image data of a collected image by data type, wherein further in response to the decoding of the dataform the classifier is disabled in a manner that for the subsequent image, the classifier is not active to classify image data by data type.