Abstract: Disclosed are a system and a method for compositing various images that minimize a brightness difference in connection areas of various images by using a clustering technique at the time of compositing various images. The method for compositing various images may include receiving two or more input images; compositing the two or more input images into one composite image; calculating a brightness distribution degree; calculating representative brightness values; determining clustering; calculating a correction target value; and calculating a correction value of an increase/decrease curve.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for reading license plate numbers in a road network, comprising: recording an image of a license plate number at a first location, OCR-reading a license plate character string in the image, and storing an OCR data set in a database; recording an image of a license plate number at a second location, OCR-reading a license plate number character string in the image, and generating a current OCR data set; and, if a confidence measure of the current OCR data set falls below a first minimum confidence value, selecting a stored OCR data set with a license plate number image having a similarity exceeding a minimum similarity value and/or having the greatest similarity to the license plate number image of the current OCR data set, and using the selected OCR data set for improving the license plate number character string of the current OCR data set.

Abstract: A color balancing apparatus for multiple image synthesis and a method therefore, in which an automatic white balance unit, with respect to each of a plurality of input images that are obtained by sequentially capturing adjacent scenes, is configured to compare a neutral color representing the input image with chromaticity of standard sources that are predefined, determine a standard source which is closest to the neutral color among the standard sources as a standard illuminant, and perform a white balance on the input image based on the standard illuminant, so that a natural wide-area synthesis image is generated by use of a light source estimation scheme considering multiple light sources, without complex computation of the conventional wide-area image synthesis, are provided.

Abstract: An image inspection system, an image inspection method, and an image inspection program acquires a read image obtained by reading an output image, generates an inspection image for inspecting the read image based on data of a to-be-output image, acquires an inspection result including a determination whether the read image is defective, based on a difference between the inspection image and the read image, acquires coloring-material usage data indicating extent of coloring-material usage in the output image, the coloring-material usage data being read when the read image is generated, generates coloring-material usage defect rate data indicating a defect rate in association with coloring-material usage, based on the inspection result and the coloring-material usage data, and obtains coloring-material usage of the to-be-output image, based on data of pixels forming the to-be-output image.

Abstract: In a method of skin tone optimization in a color gamut mapping system, an image signal is first transformed from a predetermined color domain to an HSV color domain for generating an HSV image signal. Next, a skin tone optimization is performed on the HSV image signal for generating an adjusted saturation gain. Then, a color enhancement is performed on the HSV image signal according to the adjusted saturation gain and a color shift signal so as to generate a color enhancement signal. Finally, the color enhancement signal is transformed from the HSV color domain to the predetermined color domain.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods for reading a set of images to merge together into a high dynamic range (HDR) output image are described. Images have a respective HDR weight and a respective ghost-free weight. Images are merged together using the weighted average of the set of input images using the ghost-free weight. A difference image is determined based on a difference between each pixel within a HDR output image and each respective pixel within a reference image used to create the HDR output image.

Abstract: An electronic device and method capture multiple images of a scene of real world at a several zoom levels, the scene of real world containing text of one or more sizes. Then the electronic device and method extract from each of the multiple images, one or more text regions, followed by analyzing an attribute that is relevant to OCR in one or more versions of a first text region as extracted from one or more of the multiple images. When an attribute has a value that meets a limit of optical character recognition (OCR) in a version of the first text region, the version of the first text region is provided as input to OCR.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for tracking an object are disclosed. The method includes determining a first position by a first tracking template and determining a second position by a second tracking template, the first and second tracking templates being formed based on first and second feature sets, respectively, the first feature set being different from the second feature set, and the first feature set and the second feature set including one or more features; and determining a final position based on the first position and the second position, wherein the first tracking template is updated for each of a predetermined number of frames, the second tracking template is updated based on a predetermined rule, the second tracking template and the first tracking template are independently updated, and the update frequency of the second tracking template is lower than the first tracking template.

Abstract: An in-vehicle information system includes a camera and a controller that accept gesture input. A controller receives frames of video data and generates trajectory data for a movement of a hand in the video data. The controller uses a first hidden Markov model (HMM) to decode a sequence of strokes from the trajectory data, removes a starting and ending stroke to form an edited stroke sequence, and re-normalizes the strokes in the edited stroke sequence. The controller uses a second HMM corresponding to a predetermined set of characters to identify a character corresponding to the re-normalized edited stroke sequence.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method and system register plural images using a computer processor and computer memory, where computer code stored in the computer memory causes the computer processor to perform the registration. The registration includes receiving a reference image; receiving a sensed image; computing an approximate image transformation between the reference image and the sensed image; finding plural candidate tie points by utilizing template matching; applying radiometric filtering to at least a portion of the plural candidate tie points; applying geometric filtering to at least a portion of the plural candidate tie points; computing a calculated image transformation using candidate points of the plural candidate points that were not filtered out by the radiometric and geometric filtering; transforming the sensed image using the calculated image transformation; and registering the sensed image with the reference image.

Abstract: Systems and methods for iterative near lossless image compression are provided. An exemplary computer-implemented method of compressing image data can include performing a plurality of compression iterations. Each compression iteration can include at least one decision regarding a loss of image data. The method can also include updating an entropy model following each compression iteration. The entropy model can describe an entropy associated with selected of a plurality of data blocks. The at least one decision regarding the loss of image data can be decided, for each compression iteration, based on the entropy model as updated following the previous compression iteration. Further, a total loss of image data from each data block can remain within an acceptable loss bound associated with the pixel described by such data block. An exemplary system can include a loss determination module, an entropy modeling module, a compression module, and an entropy coding module.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a handwritten character retrieval apparatus is provided with an acquisition unit, a separation unit, a feature extraction unit and a retrieval unit. The acquisition unit acquires a document including handwriting data. The separation unit separates the document into a plurality of parts. The feature extraction unit extracts feature values, each indicating a feature value of each part. The retrieval unit executes retrieval based on the feature values.

Abstract: An approach to segmentation or clustering of a set of elements combines separate procedures and uses training data for those procedures on labeled data. This approach is applied to elements being components of an image of text (e.g., printed or handwritten). In some examples, the elements are connected sets of pixels. In images of text, the clusters can correspond to individual lines. The approach provides improved clustering performance as compared to any one of the procedures taken alone.

Abstract: A method capable of determining fingerprint authenticity is disclosed. The method includes capturing a fingerprint image, performing an analysis program when executed analyzing the fingerprint image using a first color model to obtain a first chromaticity coordinate corresponding to the fingerprint image, performing a conversion program when executed converting the first chromaticity coordinate into a second chromaticity coordinate, performing a verification program when executed determining whether the second chromaticity coordinate satisfies a second predetermined skin color threshold, when the second chromaticity coordinate satisfies the second predetermined skin color threshold confirming the fingerprint image is authentic, and concluding the fingerprint image is forged when the second chromaticity coordinate fails to satisfy the second predetermined skin color threshold.

Abstract: A two-dimensional pattern comprises a plurality of R-planes each comprising a tiling of a corresponding R-ary block, being a block of radix R integer values, where for each dimension of the pattern, the least common multiple of the sizes of the tiled blocks in that dimension is greater than the size of the tiling that dimension, and any sub-block of a size less than the tiled blocks occurs on a regular grid with the same periodicity as the tiled block for that R-plane. The pattern may be used in determining a position of a location captured in an image by projecting the pattern onto a scene. An image is captured. The method determines from the captured image a sub-block associated with the location and constructs, a unique integer value for each R-plane. The unique integer values from each R-plane are used to determine the location in the image.

Abstract: The presence of a target object within a query image may be identified based on the spatial consistency of feature points matched between the query image and a template image describing the target object. A query image and a template image describing a target object to be sought in a query image are received. Feature points are extracted from the query image and the template image using a SIFT method. Query feature points are each matched to the nearest neighbor template feature point. A matched pair of query points is assigned a confidence indicator based on the distance between each parameter of the query feature point and template feature point. The confidence indicators are mapped within a binned four-dimensional space. If the number of confidence indicators mapped to any bin is greater than a threshold value, then the target object has been detected within the query image.

Abstract: An electronic device may include a finger biometric sensor and a processor cooperating with the finger biometric sensor. The processor may be capable of determining enrollment finger ridge flow angles over an enrollment area for an enrolled finger, and determining match finger ridge flow angles over a match area for a to-be matched finger. The processor may also be capable of determining at least one likely match sub-area of the enrollment area by dividing the enrollment area into a plurality of regions and determining a respective enrollment ridge flow histogram for each region of the enrollment area, and determining whether the to-be matched finger matches the enrolled finger based upon the at least one likely match sub-area.

Abstract: An electronic system incorporates an image-sensing device and a processor coupled with the image-sensing device. The image-sensing device includes an image-sensing area configured to generate a picture. The picture includes a noisy region. The processor is configured to select a tracking region from the portion of the picture outside of the noisy region. The tracking region corresponds to an operative region of the image sensing area.

Abstract: A method including determining a position of each glyph in an image of a text document, identifying word boundaries in the document thereby implying the existence of a first plurality of words, preparing a first array of word lengths based on the first plurality of words, preparing a second array of word lengths based on a second plurality of words of a text file including a certain text, comparing at least part of the first array to at least part of the second array to find a best alignment between the first and second array, deriving a layout of at least part of the certain text as arranged in the image of the text document at least based on the best alignment and the position of at least some of the glyphs in the image. Related apparatus and methods are also described.

Abstract: A machine-implemented display method that, with respect to a volume dataset being rendered, enables a user to navigate to any position in space and look in any direction. Preferably, the volume dataset is derived from a computer tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. With the described approach, the user can see details within the dataset that are not available using conventional visualization approaches. The freedom-of-motion capability allows the user to go to places (positions) within the volume rendering that are not otherwise possible using conventional “orbit” and “zoom” display techniques. Thus, for example, using the described approach, the display image enables a user to travel inside physical structures (e.g., a patient's heart, brain, arteries, and the like).