The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 09, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 09, 1998
Jie Zhu, Duluth, GA (US);
Michael C. Moed, Roswell, GA (US);
NCR Corporation, Dayton, OH (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for gray image based text identification. A gray image of a document is preferably subsampled to reduce the amount of information to be processed, while retaining sufficient information for successful processing. The subsampled image is subjected to preprocessing to remove horizontal and vertical lines. The image is then subjected to a morphological open operation. The image is then segmented to separate foreground and background information to produce a foreground image. Region filtering and merging are performed on the foreground image. Region features are then extracted and region identification performed. Homogenous regions are grouped and noise elimination performed, resulting in a number of small regions of known types. Optical character recognition can then be performed on each of the regions. The use of the information provided by variations in pixel lightness and darkness enables text identification to proceed quickly and efficiently.