METHOD FOR IMAGE RECOMBINATION OF A PLURALITY OF IMAGES AND IMAGE IDENTIFICATION AND SYSTEM FOR IMAGE ACQUIRING AND IDENTIFICATION

• US 20100278389A1
• Filed: 07/30/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Chang, Chun-Lung, Huang, Kuo-Tang, Tsai, Ya-Hui, Chen, Lai-Sheng
• Application Number:
  US12/512,628
• Publication Number:
  US 20100278389A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/62 Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/262 using context analysis, e.g. lexical, syntactic or semantic context

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for image recombination of a plurality of images and image identification and a system for image acquiring and identification. Features with respect to the plurality of images are recombined and enhanced so as to form a recombined image. After that, the recombined image is processed to emphasize the features of the recombined image so that the recombined image is capable of being identified easily. Furthermore, the present provides a system to perform the foregoing method, whereby reducing unidentified problems caused due to low quality image of the monitoring system.

Claims

1. A method for image recombination of a plurality of images, comprising steps of:

acquiring a plurality of images;

determining a region of interest in an image from the plurality of images and acquiring features in the region of interest;

acquiring from other regions a feature region corresponding to the region of interest according to the acquired features; and

performing an image recombination process to form a recombined image according to a plurality of feature regions and the region of interest.

2. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 1, further comprising a step of performing an image enhancing process on the recombined image.

3. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 1, wherein the image recombination process comprises steps of:

performing an operation process on corresponding pixels in the plurality of feature regions and the region of interest; and

forming the recombined image after the operation process.

4. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 3, wherein the corresponding pixels are averaged in the operation process.

5. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 4, further comprising a step of performing a histogram equalization process on the recombined image.

6. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 3, wherein the operation process further comprises steps of:

performing an inversing operation on the pixels in the plurality of feature regions and the pixels in the region of interest respectively;

summing the pixels in the plurality of feature regions and the pixels in the region of interest to form the recombined image; and

performing an inversing operation on the recombined image.

7. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 1, wherein the region of interest is determined by choosing from the plurality of images an image as a standard image and choosing from the standard image a region as the region of interest.

8. The method for image recombination of a plurality of images as recited in claim 1, further comprising a step of normalizing the plurality of images.

9. A method for image identification, comprising steps of:

acquiring a plurality of images;

determining a region of interest in an image from the plurality of images and acquiring features in the region of interest;

acquiring from other regions a feature region corresponding to the region of interest according to the acquired features; and

performing an image recombination process to form a recombined image according to a plurality of feature regions and the region of interest; and

identifying the recombined image.

10. The method for image identification as recited in claim 9, wherein the step of identifying the recombined image further comprises steps of:

acquiring at least one feature image in the recombined image;

providing a database comprising a plurality of sample images therein, each having respectively a standard image region and at least a non-standard image region, wherein the standard image region has pixels corresponding to a first feature value respectively, and the non-standard image region has pixels corresponding to a second feature value respectively;

performing a calculation on a third feature value of each pixel in the feature image and the first feature value or the second feature value corresponding to each pixel in the plurality of sample images to obtain a similarity index of the feature image corresponding to the plurality of sample images respectively;

collecting a plurality of similarity indexes with respect to the feature image compared with the plurality of sample images; and

sorting the plurality of similarity indexes and outputting at least one of comparison results.

11. The method for image identification as recited in claim 10, wherein the calculation is based on normalized correlation matching.

12. The method for image identification as recited in claim 10, further comprising a step of normalizing the feature image to adjust the size and the angle of the feature image so that the size of the feature image is identical to the size of the sample image after acquiring the feature image from the image.

13. The method for image identification as recited in claim 10, wherein each sample image corresponds to an image of a digit or a character.

14. The method for image identification as recited in claim 10, wherein the first feature value and the second feature value are respectively a combination of a weight value and a greyscale value, and the third feature value is a greyscale value.

15. The method for image identification as recited in claim 9, wherein the recombined image comprises information regarding an identification mark on a carrier.

16. The method for image identification as recited in claim 9, wherein the image recombination process comprises steps of:

performing an operation process on corresponding pixels in a plurality of feature regions and the region of interest; and

forming the recombined image after the operation process.

17. The method for image identification as recited in claim 16, wherein the corresponding pixels are averaged in the operation process.

18. The method for image identification as recited in claim 17, further comprising a step of performing a histogram equalization process on the recombined image.

19. The method for image identification as recited in claim 16, wherein the operation process further comprises steps of:

performing an inversing operation on the pixels in the plurality of feature regions and the pixels in the region of interest respectively;

summing the pixels in the plurality of feature regions and the pixels in the region of interest to form the recombined image; and

performing an inversing operation on the recombined image.

20. A system for image acquiring and identification, comprising:

an image input unit capable of providing a plurality of images;

an image processing unit coupled to the image input unit, the image processing unit further comprising;

a feature acquiring unit capable of acquiring features in a region of interest on an image from the plurality of images and acquiring from other regions a feature region corresponding to the region of interest according to the acquired features in other regions;

a recombination unit capable of performing an image recombination process according to the plurality of feature regions and the region of interest to form a recombined image.

21. The system for image acquiring and identification as recited in claim 20, wherein the image processing unit further comprises:

a database comprising a plurality of sample images therein, each having respectively a standard image region and at least a non-standard image region, wherein the standard image region has pixels corresponding to a first feature value respectively, and the non-standard image region has pixels corresponding to a second feature value respectively; and

an identification and comparison unit coupled to the recombination unit to identify the recombined image, the identification and comparison unit performing a calculation on each pixel in the feature image and each pixel in the plurality of sample images to obtain a similarity index of the feature image corresponding to the plurality of sample images respectively, the identification and comparison unit further collecting a plurality of similarity indexes with respect to the feature image compared with the plurality of sample images.

22. The system for image acquiring and identification as recited in claim 20, wherein the image processing unit is further connected to an output unit to sort the plurality of similarity indexes and output at least one of comparison results.

23. The system for image acquiring and identification as recited in claim 20, wherein the recombination unit is further connected to an enhancing unit to enhance the recombined image.

24. The system for image acquiring and identification as recited in claim 20, wherein the recombination unit is capable of normalizing the plurality of images for an image recombination process.