Text stitching from multiple images

• US 20060013444A1
• Filed: 04/01/2005
• Published: 01/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Federation of the Blind
• Original Assignee: K-NFB Reading Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Gibson, Lucy, Lvovsky, Lev, Albrecht, Paul, Kurzweil, Raymond C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/194 Calculation of difference between files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/413 Classification of content, e.g. text, photographs or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/006 using audible presentation of the information

Abstract

A reading machine has processing for detecting common text between a pair of individual images. The reading machine combines the text from the pair of images into a file or data structure if common text is detected, and determines if incomplete text phrases are present in the common text. If incomplete text phrases are present, the machine signals a user to move an image input device in a direction to capture more of the text.

Claims

1. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for causing the computing device to examine multiple images, comprising instructions for causing a computer to:

detect common text between a pair of individual images;

combine the text from the pair of images into a file or data structure if common text is detected;

determine if incomplete text phrases are present, and if incomplete text phrases are present, then signal a user to move an image input device that captures the pair of individual images in a direction to capture more of the text.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein common text between two strings from the pair of images is detected by searching for the longest common subsequence of characters in the strings.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein common text between two strings is detected by producing a measure of a degree of match from any two strings, based on how many characters match in the strings.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein stitching the text from the pair of images comprises:

stitching the text together from the two images in accordance with the measure of match between strings in the two images.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the detection of incomplete text comprises:

determining that text is very close to the edge of the image.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the detection of incomplete text comprises:

using a text string recognized at an edge of the image as an input to a dictionary and determining that the text string does not correspond to any words in the dictionary;

indicating that the text string corresponds to incomplete text.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the detection of incomplete text comprises:

using a text string recognized at an edge of the image as an input to a grammar checker;

determining that the text string is ungrammatical; and

indicating that the text string corresponds to incomplete text.

8. The computer program product of claim 5 further comprising instructions to:

announce to the user to capture another image if incomplete text is detected.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising instructions to:

combine the information from the two images either by performing text stitching or by performing image stitching and re-processing the appropriate section of the combined image.

10. A method comprising:

detecting common text between a pair of individual images; and

combining the text from the pair of images into a file or data structure if common text is detected;

determining if incomplete text phrases are present in the common text, and if incomplete text phrases are present, then

signaling a user to move an image input device in a direction to capture more of the text.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein detecting common text between two strings from the pair of images is detected by searching for the longest common subsequence of characters in the strings.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein detecting common text between two strings is detected by producing a measure of a degree of match from any two strings, based on how many characters match in the strings.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein stitching the text from the pair of images comprises:

stitching the text together from the two images in accordance with the measure of match between strings in the two images.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein determining incomplete text comprises:

determining that text is very close to the edge of the image.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein determining incomplete text comprises:

using a text string recognized at an edge of the image as an input to a dictionary and determining that the text string does not correspond to any words in the dictionary; and

indicating that the text string corresponds to incomplete text.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein determining incomplete text comprises:

using a text string recognized at an edge of the image as an input to a grammar checker;

determining that the text string is ungrammatical; and

indicating that the text string corresponds to incomplete text.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprises:

announcing to the user to capture another image if incomplete text is detected.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprises:

combining the information from the two images either by performing text stitching or by performing image stitching; and

re-processing the appropriate section of the combined image.

21. The reading machine of claim 18 wherein stitching the text from the pair of images together comprises:

stitching the text together from the two images in accordance with the measure of match between strings in the two images.

19. A reading machine comprises:

a computing device;

an image input device coupled to the computing device for capturing images; and

a computer program product residing on a computer readable medium comprising instructions for causing the computing device to;

detect common text between a pair of individual images; and

combine the text from the pair of images into a file or data structure if common text is detected;

determine if incomplete text phrases are present in the common text, if incomplete text phrases are present, then signal a user to move an image input device in a direction to capture more of the text.

20. The reading machine of claim 19 wherein common text between two strings is detected by producing a measure of a degree of match from any two strings, based on how many characters match in the strings.

22. The reading machine of claim 19 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

combine the information from the two images either by performing text stitching or by performing image stitching; and

re-process the appropriate section of the combined image.