Abstract: A decoding device includes a processor configured to: analyze a captured image having a 2D captured image coordinate system to identify an instance of a type of anchor marking therein; derive an orientation thereof relative to the captured image coordinate system; correlate the type of anchor marking to a relative location of a corresponding type of target marking within a 2D normalized coordinate system; employ the location and orientation of the instance of the type of anchor marking within the captured image coordinate system, and the relative location of the type of target marking within the normalized coordinate system to derive a location of an instance of the type of target marking within the captured image coordinate system; attempt interpretation of the instance of the type of target marking at the derived location to decode data thereat; and in response to a successful decode, transmit the data to another device.

Abstract: A decoding device includes a processor configured to: analyze a captured image having a 2D captured image coordinate system to identify an instance of a type of anchor marking therein; derive an orientation thereof relative to the captured image coordinate system; correlate the type of anchor marking to a relative location of a corresponding type of target marking within a 2D normalized coordinate system; employ the location and orientation of the instance of the type of anchor marking within the captured image coordinate system, and the relative location of the type of target marking within the normalized coordinate system to derive a location of an instance of the type of target marking within the captured image coordinate system; attempt interpretation of the instance of the type of target marking at the derived location to decode data thereat; and in response to a successful decode, transmit the data to another device.

Abstract: A method of operation of an optical character recognition pre-localization system, comprising receiving an image having an original frame to be pre-processed for optical character recognition, applying a pyramid filter to the original frame in order to create a filtered image containing blobs to be analyzed as potential regions of interest that may contain characters, tiling the filtered image into a set of tiles of a defined tile size, and for each tile, determining a contrast, a module value and a gradient angle, identifying a first tile of the set of tiles of the filtered image, wherein the contrast and the module values of the first tile are higher than a respective contrast threshold and module threshold, and generating at least one region of interest of the original frame to be passed to an optical character recognition decoding module based on the first tile, and related systems.

Abstract: A method of operation of an optical character recognition pre-localization system, comprising receiving an image having an original frame to be pre-processed for optical character recognition, applying a pyramid filter to the original frame in order to create a filtered image containing blobs to be analyzed as potential regions of interest that may contain characters, tiling the filtered image into a set of tiles of a defined tile size, and for each tile, determining a contrast, a module value and a gradient angle, identifying a first tile of the set of tiles of the filtered image, wherein the contrast and the module values of the first tile are higher than a respective contrast threshold and module threshold, and generating at least one region of interest of the original frame to be passed to an optical character recognition decoding module based on the first tile, and related systems.

Abstract: A system and method for localizing an area of interest likely containing a digital watermark is disclosed. Image frames may be segmented into multiple tiles. A pixel having the maximum grayscale or other value and a pixel having the minimum grayscale or other value in each tile may be identified. Maximum and minimum image maps may be generated from the image frame by replacing each tile with the respective maximum and minimum grayscale or other value pixels. A background map may be generated based on a moving average of the grayscale values of the pixels in the image maps. Foreground map(s) may be generated based on the difference of the values from the image maps to the background map. A region of interest may be determined based on the background and foreground maps and provided to a watermark decoder. Content contained in the digital watermark may be read.

Abstract: A system and method for localizing an area of interest likely containing a digital watermark is disclosed. Image frames may be segmented into multiple tiles. A pixel having the maximum grayscale or other value and a pixel having the minimum grayscale or other value in each tile may be identified. Maximum and minimum image maps may be generated from the image frame by replacing each tile with the respective maximum and minimum grayscale or other value pixels. A background map may be generated based on a moving average of the grayscale values of the pixels in the image maps. Foreground map(s) may be generated based on the difference of the values from the image maps to the background map. A region of interest may be determined based on the background and foreground maps and provided to a watermark decoder. Content contained in the digital watermark may be read.

Abstract: A decoding device includes decoding storage to store metadata of tiles of a captured image of an object, wherein each tile includes a 2D array of pixels, and the metadata is derived by a subsampling circuit from the captured image via transform and describes at least one characteristic of each tile. The decoding device also includes a processor to compare a metadata value of each tile to a first threshold to identify tiles that includes a portion of an indicia; upon identification of a cluster of adjacent tiles that each meet the first threshold and that are numerous enough to meet a second threshold, request a ROI that includes the cluster from a subsampling circuit; analyze the ROI to determine whether it contains the indicia; and decode and transmit data encoded within the indicia to a server.

Abstract: A decoding device includes storage to store image data including grayscale values of pixels in multiple captured images, and a processor including multiple SIMD components and at least one component. For each captured image at least one available SIMD component performs: at least one transform with the grayscale values of at least one portion of the captured image to generate at least one corresponding metadata; and the at least one transform in preparation for an analysis of the at least one metadata by the at least one core component. The at least one core component is to perform: the analysis to identify at least one ROI within the captured image indicated by the at least one metadata to include at least one encoded data marking; and a decoding of the at least one ROI to attempt a decode of the at least one encoded data marking.

Abstract: A decoding device includes decoding storage to store metadata of tiles of a captured image of an object, wherein each tile includes a 2D array of pixels, and the metadata is derived by a subsampling circuit from the captured image via transform and describes at least one characteristic of each tile. The decoding device also includes a processor to compare a metadata value of each tile to a first threshold to identify tiles that includes a portion of an indicia; upon identification of a cluster of adjacent tiles that each meet the first threshold and that are numerous enough to meet a second threshold, request a ROI that includes the cluster from a subsampling circuit; analyze the ROI to determine whether it contains the indicia; and decode and transmit data encoded within the indicia to a server.

Abstract: A decoding device includes storage to store image data including grayscale values of pixels in multiple captured images, and a processor including multiple SIMD components and at least one component. For each captured image at least one available SIMD component performs: at least one transform with the grayscale values of at least one portion of the captured image to generate at least one corresponding metadata; and the at least one transform in preparation for an analysis of the at least one metadata by the at least one core component. The at least one core component is to perform: the analysis to identify at least one ROI within the captured image indicated by the at least one metadata to include at least one encoded data marking; and a decoding of the at least one ROI to attempt a decode of the at least one encoded data marking.

Abstract: A decoding device may include a processor that may include a core component configured to: analyze watermark metadata to identify a watermark ROI from among multiple candidate ROIs in response to generation of the watermark metadata, determine whether rectification is to be performed within the watermark ROI, perform watermark decoding with the rectified watermark ROI data to decode data encoded within a digital watermark within the rectified watermark ROI in response to performance of the rectification, and transmit the data to a server via a network in response to successful decode of the data. The processor may also include a SIMD component configured to perform at least one of: a watermark transform with the captured image to generate the watermark metadata, and the rectification within the watermark ROI to generate the rectified watermark ROI data in response to the determination by the core component to perform the rectification.

Abstract: Systems and methods of operation for a machine-readable symbol reader for estimating the relative position, orientation and/or distance of a scanned target object or item labeled with two dimensional (2D) indicia, such as a digital watermark. Such estimation information may be provided to a localization process or a decoding process to assist such processes in decoding the 2D indicia from an image of the object labeled with the 2D indicia. The machine-readable symbol reader may include an aiming system which projects a light pattern onto a target object. The reader may capture one or more images of the target object while the light pattern is projected thereon and analyze at least one characteristic of the pattern to estimate position, orientation or distance of the target object relative to the machine-readable symbol reader. Such information may be used to improve decoding of the 2D indicia.

Abstract: Systems and methods of operation for a machine-readable symbol reader for estimating the relative position, orientation and/or distance of a scanned target object or item labeled with two dimensional (2D) indicia, such as a digital watermark. Such estimation information may be provided to a localization process or a decoding process to assist such processes in decoding the 2D indicia from an image of the object labeled with the 2D indicia. The machine-readable symbol reader may include an aiming system which projects a light pattern onto a target object. The reader may capture one or more images of the target object while the light pattern is projected thereon and analyze at least one characteristic of the pattern to estimate position, orientation or distance of the target object relative to the machine-readable symbol reader. Such information may be used to improve decoding of the 2D indicia.