Method to identify an object and a system for doing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9672226-B2
Application number	US-201214354274-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2012
Priority date	Oct 27, 2011
Publication date	Jun 6, 2017
Grant date	Jun 6, 2017

Abstract

Various embodiments relate to a method to identify an object comprising: receiving an image, the image having an object in front of a background; segmenting the image into a segmented image using a segmentation technique, the segmented image having a foreground component showing at least a part of the object and a background component showing at least a part of the background; determining at least one property of the foreground component of the segmented image; and matching the at least one property of the foreground component with a database of identified objects having the corresponding at least one property to identify the object.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method to identify an object comprising:
receiving an image, the image having an object in front of a background;
segmenting the image into a segmented image using a segmentation technique, the segmented image having a foreground component showing at least a part of the object and a background component showing at least a part of the background; determining at least one property of the foreground component of the segmented image; and
matching the at least one property of the foreground component with a database of identified objects having the corresponding at least one property to identify the object;
wherein determining the at least one property of the foreground component comprises:
identifying a contour of the foreground component;
identifying a plurality of points along the contour of the foreground component;
selecting a shape out a plurality of predefined shapes based on the plurality of points, wherein the at least one property of the foreground component comprises the shape selected based on the plurality of points; and
reducing the plurality of points identified comprising:
selecting a point;
identifying a first neighboring point nearest the selected point;
identifying a second neighboring point the second next nearest the selected point;
determining an angle between a first line drawn between the selected point and the first neighboring point and a second line drawn between the selected point and the second neighbouring point; and
removing the selected point if the angle exceeds a predetermined value.

2. The method to identify an object according to claim 1 further comprising:
segmenting the image using further segmentation techniques into further segmented images to produce a plurality of segmented images; and choosing one or more segmented images from the plurality of segmented images for determining the at least one property of the foreground component.

3. The method to identify an object according to claim 2 wherein choosing the one or more segmented image from the plurality of segmented images comprises:
determining a center point of the foreground component in each segmented image;
calculating a coefficient of variation for each segmented image based on the distance of pixels belonging to the foreground component from the center point of the foreground component in the segmented image; and
determining whether the coefficient of variation of each segmented image falls below a predetermined value.

4. The method to identify an object according to claim 2 wherein choosing the one or more segmented image from the plurality of segmented images comprises:
determining number of pixels belonging to the foreground component in each segmented image; and
determining whether the number of pixels belonging to the foreground component in each segmented image falls within a predetermined range of values.

5. The method to identify an object according to claim 1 wherein segmenting the image using the segmentation technique or techniques comprises:
determining a number of color categories in the image;
grouping each pixel of the image under one of the number of color categories based on similarities of color of each pixel to color of the color categories; and
determining the foreground component and the background component of the image based on the grouped pixels.

6. The method to identify an object according to claim 5 wherein segmenting the image using the segmentation technique or techniques further comprises:
determining a center point of the image;
calculating distance of each pixel from the center points of the image; and
grouping each pixel in the image under one of the number of color categories further based on the distance of the pixel from the center points of the image.

7. The method to identify an object according to claim 5 wherein segmenting the image using the segmentation technique or techniques further comprises:
performing color conversion on each pixel to increase algorithm efficacy before determining the number of color categories in the image comprising:
assigning hue, saturation, and lightness for each pixel in hue, saturation, and lightness (HSL) color space;
equating value to the lightness for each pixel such that hue, saturation, and value (HSV) color space is defined for each pixel; and
transforming hue, saturation, and value (HSV) color space to red, green, blue (RGB) color space for each pixel.

8. The method to identify an object according to claim 1 wherein segmenting the image using the segmentation technique or techniques comprises:
identifying a range of colors such that pixels having the range of colors are grouped as the background component of the segmented image; and
grouping pixels not having the range of colors as the foreground component of the segmented image.

9. The method to identify an object according to claim 1 wherein matching the at least one property of the foreground component comprises:
rating similarity between the shape of the foreground component based on the plurality of points and an identified object in the database comprising:
forming a first polygon having vertices formed from the shape a first of the number of foreground component and a second polygon having a second number of vertices derived from the identified object in the database;
determining whether the first number of vertices is equal to the second number of vertices;
removing a vertice from the polygon having a greater number of vertices and changing an index if the first number of vertices is not equal to the second number of vertices;
reiterating comparison between the polygonal with reduced vertice and the remaining polygonal and changing the index until the first number of vertices is equal to the second number of vertices;
determining whether the first polygon is similar to the second polygon if the first number of vertices is equal to the second number of vertices;
removing a vertice from both the first polygon and the second polygon and changing the index if the first polygon is not similar to the second polygon but the first number of vertices is equal to the second number of vertices;
assigning the index to the identified object if the first polygon is similar to the second polygon and the first number of vertices is equal to the second number of vertices; and
reiterating comparison between polygonals with removed vertices and changing the index until the index is assigned;
wherein the index indicates similarity between the shape of the foreground component and the identified objects;
repeating rating similarity between the shape of the foreground component and subsequent identified objects in the database; and
matching the foreground component to the identified object in the database having the highest index.

10. The method to identify an object according to claim 1 wherein the segmented image is a binary image having a first color and a second color, the first color for identifying the foreground component and the second color for identifying the background component.

11. The method to identify an object according to claim 1 wherein the object is a pill.

12. A method to identify an object comprising
receiving an image, the image having an object in front of a background;
segmenting the image into a segmented image using a segmentation technique, the segmented image having a foreground component showing at least a part of the object and a background component showing at least a part of the background; determining at least one property of the foreground component of the segmented image; and
matching the at least one property of the foreground

Assignees

• Agency Science Tech & Res
• Illinois At Singapore Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Lu Jiangbo
• Wang Gang

Classifications

• G06V20/66 Primary

  Trinkets, e.g. shirt buttons or jewellery items (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title

• G06F16/583

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• G06V10/255

  Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes · CPC title

• G06V10/56

  relating to colour · CPC title

• G06V10/421

  by analysing segments intersecting the pattern · CPC title