Abstract: A first set of pixels forming a first set of rows of a first image acquired by an image acquisition device is received. A first partially corrected set of pixels forming a first partially corrected set of rows is generated from the first set of pixels where successive pixels of a row from the first partially corrected set of rows correspond to successive parallel lines in a plane defined by the sheet of light that are equally spaced along a first axis of a world coordinate system. Based on the first partially corrected set of pixels and based on a peak extraction mechanism, a first partially corrected set of points of the sheet of light is extracted. The first partially corrected set of points is transformed to obtain a first corrected set of points of the sheet of light that are corrected in a first and a second direction.

Abstract: A minimum edit cost is representative of a cost of edit operations performed on a candidate string detected in an image to satisfy characteristics of a model string. An attempt to perform a minimum edit cost between the candidate string and the model string is performed. Upon determining that the candidate string includes a blank character at a first character position between two consecutive non-blank candidate characters, and in response to determining that there is a non-blank model character at a second character position of the model string and that the second character position is associated with the first character position of the blank character in the candidate string, an indication that the minimum edit cost between the candidate string and the model string cannot be computed and that the candidate string is not a match to the model string is output.

Abstract: A method and a system of object contours comparisons are described. A first tree structure that connects all points of a set of points is determined such that a length of the first tree structure is smaller than a length of any other possible tree structures for connecting all points. Based on the first tree structure, a first subset of the set of points is determined such that it includes points ordered to form a path that satisfies a selection criterion for representing a first contour of a first object. From the first subset of points and a second set of points that forms a contour of a second object, a set of points of interest is determined. The first object and the second object are compared based on characteristics of the shape indicative of a difference between the first and the second contours formed by the points of interest.

Abstract: A method and system of recognizing a string of characters in a target image. An acquired target image is analyzed using an optical character recognition process to identify a candidate string, the candidate string having an associated plurality of character positions, each character position being associated with a set of one or more candidate characters located at related positions in the target image. A minimum edit cost is determined between the candidate string and a template for an output string. Determining the minimum edit cost includes, for a given character position in the candidate string and a given output character position in the template, identifying, among the respective set of candidate characters of the candidate string, a subset of candidate characters that satisfy the respective character set of the template; and determining an edit cost based on the recognition score of one of the candidate characters belonging to the identified subset of candidate characters.

Abstract: A minimum edit cost is determined between the candidate string and a model string, where the model string includes at least one blank model character located at a first character position between two consecutive non-blank model characters. The minimum edit cost is representative of a cost of edit operations performed on the candidate string to satisfy characteristics of the model string, and includes: responsive to determining that there is a non-blank candidate character at a second character position of the candidate string and that the second character position is associated with the first character position of the blank model character in the model string, a cost of performing a delete operation of the non-blank candidate character from the candidate string, and a cost of performing an insert operation of a blank character in the candidate string at the second character position are computed, and added to the minimum edit cost.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining orientation and dot pitch of characters in an image. A statistical neighborhood of a set of dots of an image is determined. The statistical neighborhood includes a set of points and each point is associated with a position and a statistical measure indicative of a likelihood that one or more dots that satisfy a shape and a size criteria are located at that position. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is computed across the set of points of the statistical neighborhood; and based on the FFT of the set of points, a first orientation and a first distance between adjacent dots of characters along the first orientation, and a second orientation and a second distance between adjacent dots of the characters along the second orientation are determined.

Abstract: A method and system of identifying a plurality of strings in an image are described. A set of ranks and an image are received. Optical character recognition is performed on the image to identify candidate strings. The candidate strings are ordered according to their location in the image with respect to a reading direction. Minimum assignation costs between the plurality of candidate strings and the set of ranks are determined. Each of the minimum assignation costs is representative of a cost of one or more edit operations performed on the plurality of candidate strings to obtain a subset of candidate strings ordered according to the set of ranks. A subset of candidate strings that is associated with the lowest minimum assignation cost when compared with other minimum assignation costs of other subsets of candidate strings from the plurality of candidate strings is selected and outputting.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for extraction of dots in an image are described. An image is binarized according to an initial intensity threshold to obtain an initial binary image including foreground and background pixels. Each foreground pixel has a foreground intensity value and each background pixel has a background intensity value. A set of blobs including foreground pixels is selected from the initial binary image to be part of a selected set of dots, where each blob from the set of blobs has characteristics of a dot. Responsive to determining that a successive binarization is to be performed, the following operations are repeated: (1) binarization of the image according to a successive intensity threshold (2) selection of a successive set of blobs, where each blob has characteristics of a dot. Responsive to determining that a successive binarization is not to be performed, the selected set of dots is output.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for optical character recognition of dot text in an image are described. A plurality of dots that satisfy dot selection criteria are extracted from an image. A transformation is performed on the plurality of dots based on a first candidate distance between adjacent dots along a first orientation and on a second candidate distance between adjacent dots along a second orientation to obtain a transformed image including stroked characters. Model based character matching is performed on the transformed image to output a candidate string of characters.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for locating dot text in an image are described. A set of dots is extracted. A determination of whether a first region of interest (ROI) including the set of dots satisfies selection criteria is performed, where the first region of interest is oriented based on results from a principal component analysis of the set of dots. Responsive to determining that the first ROI does not satisfy the selection criteria, performing the following: removing an outlier dot from the first set of dots to obtain a second set of dots; when the second ROI satisfies the selection criteria, outputting the second ROI as a location of the dot text in the image, and when the second region of interest does not satisfy the selection criteria, repeating the operations until a resulting ROI is determined to satisfy the selection criteria.

Abstract: There is described herein a method and system for detecting, in a segmented image, the presence and position of objects with a dimension greater than or equal to a minimum dimension. The objects exhibit a property whereby a distance map of the object at a first scale and a distance map of the object at a second scale greater than the first scale differ by a constant value over a domain of the distance map of the object at the first scale. A distance map of a model object is compared to a distance map of a target object using a similarity score that is invariant to an offset.

Abstract: A method for detecting a position of a sheet of light is described. A second derivative filter is applied to an intensity profile of a line of pixels. An ingress pixel position associated with an ingress zero-crossing second derivative value is determined. The ingress pixel position is between a first pixel position with a first minimum intensity value of the intensity profile and a second pixel position with a first maximum intensity value of the intensity profile. An egress pixel position associated with an egress zero-crossing second derivative value is determined. The egress pixel position is between a third pixel position with a second maximum intensity value of the intensity profile and a fourth pixel position with a second minimum intensity value of the intensity profile. A midpoint pixel position between the ingress pixel position and the egress pixel position is output as the position of the sheet of light.

Abstract: Method and system for capturing and playing back ancillary data associated with a video stream. At capture, a first video stream and its associated non-audio ancillary data are received. The non-audio ancillary data associated with the first video stream is encoded into a first audio stream on a basis of a predefined encoding scheme. The captured non-audio ancillary data can then be transmitted and processed with the first video stream in the form of the first audio stream. At playback, a second video stream and a second audio stream containing encoded non-audio ancillary data associated with the second video stream are received. The second audio stream is decoded on a basis of a predefined decoding scheme in order to extract therefrom the non-audio ancillary data associated with the second video stream. The second video stream and its associated non-audio ancillary data are then both output for playback.

Abstract: In a method and system for detecting a position of a sheet of light in an image, two parameters are used, namely the width of the widest peak to be detected and the intensity difference of the least-contrasted peak to be detected. From these two parameters, a size S, a distance D, and a threshold T are determined. A region of interest (ROI) is determined based on the intensity profile associated with a line of pixels of the image, distance D and threshold T. A derivative filter of size S is applied to the intensity profile to produce a slope of the intensity profile. In the determined ROI, one or more zero-crossings in the slope of the intensity profile are detected. From the detected zero-crossings, a zero-crossing is selected and the position of the selected zero-crossing is returned as the detected position of the sheet of light for the line of pixels.

Abstract: A reference value for a color statistic and an input image sample are received. A global color mapping is performed between the input image sample and the reference value to obtain a globally-mapped input image sample, the color statistic of the globally-mapped input image sample substantially matching the reference value and each pixel location in the globally-mapped input image sample having a correspondence with a corresponding pixel location in the input image sample. A point-to-point color mapping function minimizing for all pixels an error between the globally-mapped input image sample and the input image sample mapped according to the color mapping function is computed, the color mapping function transforming a color value of each pixel location in the input image sample to substantially match a color value of the corresponding pixel location in the globally-mapped input image sample.

Abstract: A method and system for identifying an edge in a portion of an image, the portion having an associated intensity variation. An edge candidate is detected at a local extremum of the intensity variation (i.e. at a position along the x-axis that corresponds to a peak or valley of the intensity variation). A local threshold associated with the edge candidate is computed on the basis of a slope tolerance and the slope value of the edge candidate, where this local threshold defines a boundary region for the edge candidate. If the edge candidate is determined to be a global extremum (i.e. the highest peak or lowest valley) within its respective boundary region, the edge candidate is verified as being an actual edge of the image portion. Identification of this verified edge may include determination of one or more of a plurality of characteristics of the edge.

Abstract: Method and system for capturing and playing back ancillary data associated with a video stream. At capture, a first video stream and its associated non-audio ancillary data are received. The non-audio ancillary data associated with the first video stream is encoded into a first audio stream on a basis of a predefined encoding scheme. The captured non-audio ancillary data can then be transmitted and processed with the first video stream in the form of the first audio stream. At playback, a second video stream and a second audio stream containing encoded non-audio ancillary data associated with the second video stream are received. The second audio stream is decoded on a basis of a predefined decoding scheme in order to extract therefrom the non-audio ancillary data associated with the second video stream. The second video stream and its associated non-audio ancillary data are then both output for playback.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for performing real-time execution of a plurality of commands in a non real-time operating system environment using a driver, running at the privileged level and which comprises a command dispatcher, receiving a plurality of commands provided by a user application, and a command queue storing the plurality of commands provided by the user application for further providing the plurality of commands to a target unit for execution.

Abstract: A model-based object recognition system operates to recognize an object on a predetermined world surface within a world space. An image of the object is acquired. This image is a distorted projection of the world space. The acquired image is processed to locate one or more local features of the image, with respect to an image coordinate system of the image. These local features are mapped a world coordinate system of the world surface, and matched to a model defined in the world coordinate system. Annotations can be arranged as desired relative to the object in the world coordinate system, and then inverse-mapped into the image coordinate system for display on a monitor in conjunction with the acquired image. Because models are defined in world coordinates, and pattern matching is also performed in world coordinates, one model definition can be used by multiple independent object recognition systems.

Abstract: A method for providing a combined TV/PC video stream for TV display is provided. A TV video chip having a video input port for receiving a PC monitor display signal and an input for receiving a TV broadcast signal is provided, as well as a PC graphics chip. A PC monitor display signal is sent from the PC graphics chip to the TV video chip. The TV video chip mixing the PC monitor display signal with the TV broadcast signal to generate a combined TV/PC video stream in a format for TV display. A method for generating a combined TV/PC video stream in a format for TV display is further provided. A stream of encoded TV frames is received and the encoded frames are decoded to provide a stream of decoded TV frames. The stream of decoded TV frames is stored into a memory. A PC monitor display signal is provided and is converted into a stream of PC frames. The stream of PC frames are stored into the memory.