Patent · US Expired

Machine vision methods for determining characteristics of an object using boundary points and bounding regions

US5974169A · kind A · utility

96Cited by
142References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMar 20, 1997
Grant dateOct 26, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 20, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T2207/30141
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Machine vision methods for determining a characteristic (such as position, orientation, size, center of mass, and boundary) of an object in an image include finding points in the image on the boundary of the object; identifying bounding boxes, or regions, in the image that correspond to edges of the object; and labeling boundary points to denote which respective edges, if any, to which they belong based on (i) the locations and orientations of those points, and (ii) locations of the plural bounding boxes. Points apparently lying on a boundary of the object, but outside a bounding box, can be ignored--and, more particularly, are denoted as not corresponding to an edge. Likewise, apparent boundary points lying within a bounding box, but at an angle not associated with the corresponding to the respective edge of the object, can also be ignored. Characteristics of the imaged object are determined as a function of those boundary points found to correspond to an edge of the object (e.g., points lying within a bounding box, at the expected angle, and not too far from a line connecting similarly situated points). Characteristics of the object, such as position, orientation, size, center of…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.