Methods and systems for character segmentation in automated license plate recognition applications
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for character segmentation with respect to an image of a license plate, said method comprising:
- acquiring at least one image of a license plate via an image-capturing unit;
calculating a pixel-level importance map with respect to said at least one image of said license plate based on image attributes associated with said at least one image acquired via said image-capturing unit; and
applying a seam selection with respect to said pixel-level importance map and said at least one image by enforcing at least one constraint based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for a character segmentation with respect to said at least one image of said license plate acquired by said image-capturing unit.
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Abstract
Methods and systems for character segmentation in an automatic license plate recognition application. One or more images of a license plate are acquired. Then, a pixel-level importance may be calculated with respect to the image(s) of the license plate based on information within the image, such as gradient information and raw grayscale information. A seam selection can be then applied with respect to the pixel-level importance map and the image(s) by enforcing constraints based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for character segmentation with respect to the image(s) of the license plate.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for character segmentation with respect to an image of a license plate, said method comprising:
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acquiring at least one image of a license plate via an image-capturing unit; calculating a pixel-level importance map with respect to said at least one image of said license plate based on image attributes associated with said at least one image acquired via said image-capturing unit; and applying a seam selection with respect to said pixel-level importance map and said at least one image by enforcing at least one constraint based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for a character segmentation with respect to said at least one image of said license plate acquired by said image-capturing unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for character segmentation with respect to an image of a license plate, said system comprising:
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a processor; a data bus coupled to said processor; and a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, said computer-usable medium being coupled to said data bus, said computer program code comprising instructions executable by said processor and configured for; acquiring at least one image of a license plate; calculating a pixel-level importance map with respect to said at least one image of said license plate and based on image attributes associated with said at least one image; and applying a seam selection with respect to said pixel-level importance map and said at least one image by enforcing at least one constraint based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for a character segmentation with respect to said at least one image of said license plate. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing computer code representing instructions to cause a process for character segmentation with respect to an image of a license plate, said computer code comprising code to:
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acquire at least one image of a license plate; calculate a pixel-level importance map with respect to said at least one image of said license plate and based on image attributes associated with said at least one image; and apply a seam selection with respect to said pixel-level importance map and said at least one image by enforcing at least one constraint based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for a character segmentation with respect to said at least one image of said license plate. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification