Size measurement device and size measurement method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9607406-B2
Application number	US-201414585627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	Jul 2, 2012
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A size measurement device for measuring a size of an object from a captured image of the object includes: an imaging unit that captures an image of an object; a display unit that displays image data captured by the imaging unit; an input unit for inputting instructions of a user; a region setting unit that, when positions are designated with the input unit in the image data displayed on the display unit, sets surrounding regions including therein respective designated positions; and a feature point determination unit that determines, in the surrounding regions set by the region setting unit, feature points providing coordinates of the object to be measured.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A size measurement device for measuring a size of an object, the object being a package, having a shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, and being from a captured image of the object, the size measurement device comprising:
a camera;
a display;
an input for inputting instructions of a user;
a processor; and
a memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:
capturing an image of the object by the camera;
displaying image data of the image captured by the camera;
setting, when four positions are designated with an input in the image data displayed on the display, four detecting regions including the four designated positions, the four designated positions including a vertex to which three edges of the package converge and end points of the three edges which converge to the vertex, the endpoints of the three edges being opposite to the vertex;

detecting, for each of the four detecting regions, edge segments corresponding to at least two edges that converge to a cross-point inside a corresponding detecting region; and
determining, based on the edge segments and the cross-point of each of the four detecting regions, vertex points providing coordinates of the object to be measured.

2. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , the operations further including:
calculating a distance between two vertex points based on the image data when the two vertex points are determined to be in at least two of the four detecting regions.

3. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein the four detecting regions are displayed on the display.

4. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein each of the four detecting regions is circular in shape.

5. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein each of the four detecting regions is rectangular in shape.

6. The size measurement device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the camera comprises a first camera and a second camera which are positioned to be spaced apart by a predetermined distance to capture images of the object from different installed positions simultaneously, and
the operations further include:
calculating a distance between the vertex points by performing arithmetic processing based on information on parallax between the first camera and the second camera.

7. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein the input and the display are constituted of a touch panel.

8. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , the operations further including:
calculating lengths of edges of the package based on positions of the vertex points when four vertex points are determined.

9. The size measurement device according to claim 1 ,
wherein in a case where a vertex point is not detected in any of the four detecting regions set for the four designated positions, the operations further include:
inferring, based on positional relationships between the four detecting regions, other detecting regions including positions not designated by the user, and
obtaining the vertex points in the inferred other detecting regions.

10. The size measurement device according to claim 1 ,
wherein in a case where a vertex point is not detected in any of the four detecting regions, the operations further include:
extracting at least two edges in spaces between a detecting region in which the vertex point is not detected and at least two other of the four detecting regions adjoining, the detecting region; and
regarding a point of intersection or a smallest distance point between the extracted two edges as a vertex point corresponding to the detecting region in which the vertex point is not detected.

11. The size measurement device according to claim 1 , the operations further including:
when determining the vertex points, matching edge images, created by tracing the edge segments inside of the each of the four detecting regions, with a pattern of edges between the edges inside of each of the four detecting regions based on positional relationships between the four designated positions.

12. A size measurement method for measuring a size of an object from a captured image of the object, the size measurement method comprising:
capturing an image of a package having a shape of a rectangular parallelepiped as the object;
displaying image data of the image;
setting, when a user designates four positions in the image data, four detecting regions including the four designated positions, the four positions including a vertex to which three edges of the package converge and end points of the three edges which converge to the vertex, the endpoints of the three edges being opposite to the vertex;
detecting, for each of the four detecting regions, edge segments corresponding to at least two edges that converge to a cross-point inside a corresponding detecting region; and
determining, based on the edge segments and the cross-point of each of the four detecting regions, vertex points providing coordinates of the object to be measured.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hata Ryouta
• Shoji Takahiro
• Toyomura Yuuji

Classifications

• G06T7/0085

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T7/0046

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01B11/02 Primary

  for measuring length, width or thickness (G01B11/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N13/0239

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06T2207/10012

  Stereo images · CPC title