Virtual-frame preprocessing for optical scanning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11227173-B2
Application number	US-202016794012-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2020
Priority date	Feb 18, 2020
Publication date	Jan 18, 2022
Grant date	Jan 18, 2022

Abstract

An optical scanner captures a plurality of images from a plurality of image-capture devices. In response to the activation signal, an evaluation phase is executed, and in response to the evaluation phase, an acquisition phase is executed. In the evaluation phase, a first set of images is captured and processed to produce a virtual frame comprising a plurality of regions, with each region containing a reduced-data image frame that is based on a corresponding one of the plurality of images. Also in the evaluation phase, attributes of each of the plurality regions of the virtual frame are assessed according to first predefined criteria, and operational parameters for the acquisition phase are set based on a result of the assessment. In the acquisition phase, a second set of at least one image is captured via at least one of the plurality of image-capture devices according to the set of operational parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus of an optical scanner for scanning a subject, the apparatus comprising: an interface circuit including an input to receive a plurality of images from a plurality of image-capture devices; an input to receive an activation signal; circuitry coupled to the interface circuit and the input, the circuitry operative to execute an evaluation phase in response to the activation signal, and an acquisition phase in response to the evaluation phase, wherein: in the evaluation phase, a first set of images is captured via the plurality of image capture devices and processed to produce a virtual frame comprising a plurality of regions, each region containing a reduced-data image frame that is based on a corresponding one of the plurality of images; in the evaluation phase, attributes of each of the plurality regions of the virtual frame are assessed according to first predefined criteria, and operational parameters for the acquisition phase are set based on a result of the assessment; and in the acquisition phase, a second set of at least one image is captured via at least one of the plurality of image-capture devices according to the set operational parameters.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of image-capture devices includes different types of image sensors.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in the evaluation phase, the first set of images are captured simultaneously by the plurality of image-capture devices.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing hardware is further constructed and programmed to execute an image processing operation in response to the capture of the second set of at least one image.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the attributes of each of the plurality regions of the virtual frame are assessed using a single video channel.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first predefined criteria includes at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of: features of the subject, lighting level, exposure level, contrast, reflections, bright spots, shadows, laser spot location, focus quality index, or any combination thereof.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the attributes of each of the plurality of regions of the virtual frame are indicative of physical or optical configurations of the image-capture device that captured the respective image corresponding to that region of the virtual frame.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operational parameters for the acquisition phase include at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of: preferential selection of an image-capture device, exposure duration setting for the image-capture device, gain setting for the image-capture device, focal length to the subject, focus configuration, illumination settings, selection of a region of interest (ROI), or any combination thereof.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in the evaluation phase, in response to a single activation signal:
a plurality of sets of images are captured via the plurality of image-capture devices and processed to produce a plurality of virtual frames; and
attributes of each of the plurality regions of each of the plurality of virtual frames are assessed according to the first predefined criteria.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in the acquisition phase, attributes of the second set of at least one image are assessed according to second predefined criteria, and operational parameters for the evaluation phase are set based on a result of that assessment.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the reduced-data image frame based on a corresponding one of the plurality of images is produced by a cropping operation, a windowing operation, or by a combination thereof, of that corresponding one of the plurality of images.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the reduced-data image frame based on a corresponding one of the plurality of images is produced by a subsampling operation, a binning operation, or by a combination thereof, of that corresponding one of the plurality of images.

13. A method for operating an optical scanner for scanning a subject, the method comprising:
capturing a plurality of images from a plurality of image-capture devices in response to an activation signal;
autonomously executing an evaluation phase in response to the activation signal; and
autonomously executing an acquisition phase in response to the evaluation phase, wherein:
in the evaluation phase, a first set of images is captured via the plurality of image-capture devices and processed to produce a virtual frame comprising a plurality of regions, each region containing a reduced-data image frame that is based on a corresponding one of the plurality of images;
in the evaluation phase, attributes of each of the plurality regions of the virtual frame are assessed according to first predefined criteria, and operational parameters for the acquisition phase are set based on a result of the assessment; and
in the acquisition phase, a second set of at least one image is captured via at least one of the image-capture devices according to the set operational parameters.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
autonomously executing an image processing operation in response to the capture of the second set of at least one image.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the image processing operation comprises at least one operation selected from the group consisting of: barcode reading, optical character recognition, object detection, object recognition, pattern recognition, or any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the attributes of each of the plurality regions of the virtual frame are assessed using a single video channel.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the first predefined criteria includes at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of: features of the subject, lighting level, exposure level, contrast, reflections, bright spots, shadows, laser spot location, focus quality index, or any combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the attributes of each of the plurality of regions of the virtual frame are indicative of physical or optical configurations of the image-capture device that captured the respective image corresponding to that region of the virtual frame.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the operational parameters for the acquisition phase include at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of: preferential selection of an image-capture device, exposure duration setting for the image-capture device, gain setting for the image-capture device, focal length to the subject, focus configuration, illumination settings, selection of a region of interest (ROI), or any combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein in the evaluation phase, in response to a single activation signal:
a plurality of sets of images are captured via the plurality of image-capture devices and processed to produce a plurality of virtual frames; and
attributes of each of the plurality regions of each of the plurality of virtual frames are assessed according to the first predefined criteria.

Assignees

• Datalogic IP Tech Srl

Inventors

• Canini Federico
• Bruni Davide
• Perugini Luca

Classifications

• G06K7/10752 Primary

  Exposure time control · CPC title

• H04N1/00251 Primary

  with an apparatus for taking photographic images, e.g. a camera · CPC title

• G06K7/10386

  the interrogation device being of the portable or hand-handheld type, e.g. incorporated in ubiquitous hand-held devices such as PDA or mobile phone, or in the form of a portable dedicated RFID reader · CPC title

• H04N1/04

  Scanning arrangements {, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa}(H04N1/387 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06V2201/07

  Target detection · CPC title