Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090033918 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ROBUST DETECTION OF THE DENSITY OF A PIGMENTED LAYER - Aspects of the disclosure can provide a method of detecting a density of a pigmented layer on an object. The method can include emitting a first modulated light onto a first portion of the object having the pigmented layer, detecting a first reflected light of the first modulated light from the first portion of the object, and determining the density of the pigmented layer according to the first reflected light. Furthermore, the method can include emitting a second modulated light onto a second portion of the object, detecting a second reflected light of the second modulated light from the second portion of the object, and determining the density of the pigmented layer according to a relative ratio that is related to the first reflected light and the second reflected light. | 02-05-2009 |
20100003044 | AMPLITUDE MODULATION OF ILLUMINATORS IN SENSING APPLICATIONS IN PRINTING SYSTEM - An image printing system includes a print engine and a sensing system. The print engine is configured to print a marking material image on a image bearing surface. The sensing system includes a plurality of illuminators, a modulator, a sensor, and a demodulator. Each illuminator is configured to simultaneously emit a light beam at the marking material image on the image bearing surface, thereby producing reflectance from the marking material image at least in a first direction. The modulator is configured to modulate an intensity characteristic of each of the light beams emitted by the illuminators such that each light beam has a different modulated waveform characteristic, where the waveform characteristic includes at least frequency. The sensor is configured to detect the reflectance from the plurality of light beams in the first direction and output a reflectance signal. The demodulator is configured to demodulate the reflectance signal to isolate a response of the marking material image to each of the individual illuminators. | 01-07-2010 |
20100086321 | DYNAMIC PHOTO RECEPTOR WEAR RATE ADJUSTMENT BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR FEEDBACK - A xerographic marking engine adjusts a charging actuator value, such as an AC peak-to-peak voltage or an AC peak-to-peak current, based on a determined knee value, V | 04-08-2010 |
20100104310 | APPARATUS FOR PRINT ASSEMBLY BLADE DEFLECTION DETECTION - An apparatus ( | 04-29-2010 |
20100272460 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PRINT APPARATUS ROTATIONAL ASSEMBLY CLEANING BLADE ADJUSTMENT - An apparatus ( | 10-28-2010 |
20100310263 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREDICTING BLADE LIFE IN AN IMAGE PRODUCTION DEVICE - A method and apparatus for predicting blade life in an image production device is disclosed. The method may include retrieving a number of print starts, a number of print cycles, a wear rate for print starts, and a wear rate for print cycles from a memory, calculating wear of a cleaning blade based on the number of print starts, the number of print cycles, the wear rate for print starts, and the wear rate for print cycles, wherein the wear rate for print starts and the wear rate for print cycles are weighed differently, determining if the calculated wear of the cleaning blade exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein if it is determined that the calculated wear of the cleaning blade exceeds a predetermined threshold, sending a notification that the cleaning blade needs to be replaced. | 12-09-2010 |
20100329702 | MULTI-COLOR PRINTING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING THE TRANSFER FIELD THROUGH CLOSED-LOOP CONTROLS - Multi-color document processing systems and methods are described in which the toner detachment field distribution curve is measured as a function of transfer field and the curve is shifted by adjustment of one or more toner state adjustment actuators to facilitate operation at lower transfer field levels for mitigating retransfer and other high field defects. | 12-30-2010 |
20110013959 | PROCESS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF CLEANING BLADE LUBRICATION STRIPES - According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided an adaptive blade lubrication apparatus that includes a lubricant unit to place a lubrication stripe of lubricating material on a portion of a main surface; a cleaning blade that engages the main surface to remove excess toner thereon; and a controller configured to control the location of each lubrication stripe of lubricating material, wherein the controller places the lubricating material based on at least one of application frequency, blade lubrication state, blade engagement with the main surface. By varying the location of the lubrication stripe, the cleaning blade is better lubricated over the entire surface of the photoreceptor with the same or less lubricant than used in single location lubrication. Blade life and reliability are improved with more effective lubrication of the blade. | 01-20-2011 |
20110040524 | TONER MASS SENSING PRECISION BY NORMALIZATION TO SUBSTRATE REFLECTANCE AND ADJUSTED FOR TONER MASS LEVEL - A method of normalizing sensor readings includes receiving a reading from a sensor configured to detect light reflected from a substrate; and normalizing the sensor reading based on a function of sensed mass level on the substrate. A processor for implementing the method is also provided. | 02-17-2011 |
20110044742 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR XEROGRAPHIC PRINTER CLEANING BLADE LUBRICATION - An apparatus ( | 02-24-2011 |
20110158661 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING PHOTORECEPTOR CHARGE TRANSPORT LAYER THICKNESS OF APPARATUS USING A SCOROTRON CHARGE DEVICE - A photoreceptor charge transport layer thickness determining apparatus for a photoreceptor including a scorotron charge device having coronode wires and a scorotron grid positioned between the corona wires and the photoreceptor charge transport layer, the scorotron charge device being configured to charge the photoreceptor layer using corona discharge to generate ions directed to a surface of the photoreceptor charge transport layer. A first current measuring device measures a current supplied to the coronode wires and outputs a first current value, a second current measuring device measures a current being delivered to the scorotron grid and outputs a second current value, and a processor receives the first and second current values and determines a current delivered to the photoreceptor charge transport layer by subtracting the second current value from the first current value, and determines a thickness of the photoreceptor charge transport layer using the current value. | 06-30-2011 |
20110246107 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF PREDICTING THE PHOTORECEPTOR REPLACEMENT INTERVAL - A system and method by which, in photoreceptor devices that use non-contact charging, an impending failure of a photoreceptor can be accurately estimated based on a determined thickness of a charge transport layer in the photoreceptor. The systems and methods may include measuring current delivered to the photoreceptor charge transport layer, measuring voltage of the photoreceptor transport layer, determining a slope of the charge device, determining the thickness of the charge transport layer based on at least one of the measured current value, voltage value, or charge device slope, and determining a photoreceptor replacement interval based on the determined thickness. | 10-06-2011 |
20110286752 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CLEANING A PHOTORECEPTOR IN A PRINTING APPARATUS - An apparatus and method that cleans a photoreceptor in a printing apparatus is disclosed. The method can include setting a voltage bias of an electrostatic cleaning brush in a printing apparatus to a first voltage bias. The method can include generating an image on media using a photoreceptor. The method can include cleaning the photoreceptor using the electrostatic cleaning brush operating at the first voltage bias. The method can include measuring operating conditions of the printing apparatus to determine an expected film accumulation rate on the photoreceptor. The method can include adjusting the voltage bias on the electrostatic cleaning brush to a second voltage bias based on the measured operating conditions. | 11-24-2011 |
20110286753 | PHOTORECEPTOR DIAGNOSTIC METHOD BASED ON DETECTION OF CHARGE DEFICIENT SPOTS - Systems and methods of diagnosing a photoreceptor associated with an imaging device. The photoreceptor is configured to enter into a diagnostic cycle to complete a set number of cycles. A sensor or array is configured to a scan a component associated with the imaging device during each of the set of cycles to establish defect data. The defect data is analyzed to filter one or more charge deficient spots (CDS) from background noise in the defect data. The systems and methods determine whether the photoreceptor needs replacement based on the determined one or more CDS. The systems and methods are further configured to output a report of the determination. The determination is conducted at fixed or variable intervals throughout the life of the photoreceptor and/or imaging device. | 11-24-2011 |
20110288821 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PREDICTING THE USEABLE LIFE OF A PHOTORECEPTOR IN IMAGING DEVICES - Systems and methods of determining a predicted usable life of components, such as a photoreceptor, associated with an imaging device. The systems and methods include a power source configured to increase an electric field across the photoreceptor. A sensor or array is configured to detect charge deficient spots (CDS) in a charge transport layer (CTL) of the photoreceptor as a result of increasing the electric field. The systems and methods are configured to determine the predicted useable life of the photoreceptor based on the detected CDS. The systems and methods are further configured to output a report of the estimation. The estimation is conducted at fixed or variable intervals throughout the life of the photoreceptor and/or imaging device. | 11-24-2011 |
20110318023 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING TONER AGE IN A PRINTING APPARATUS - An apparatus and method that determines toner age in a printing apparatus. The method can include placing an imaging surface cleaner in contact with an imaging surface. The method can include placing a toner patch on the imaging surface. The method can include rotating the imaging surface in a process direction. The method can include measuring a frictional interaction between the imaging surface cleaner and the imaging surface as the toner patch passes the imaging surface cleaner. The method can include determining whether toner should be purged based on the measured frictional interaction. The method can include purging the toner if the toner should be purged. | 12-29-2011 |
20110318025 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EVALUATING PRINTING APPARATUS CLEANER PERFORMANCE - An apparatus ( | 12-29-2011 |
20120020692 | LONG LIFE CLEANING SYSTEM WITH REDUCED STRESS FOR START OF CLEANING BLADE OPERATION - According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided an apparatus and method to manage the contact of a cleaning blade and a moving surface to increase the useful life of the blade. For example, a cleaning apparatus for a photoreceptor surface comprises a cleaning unit with a blade holder that rotates about a pivot point, a cleaning blade that is coupled to the blade holder and is positioned to chisel excess toner from the photoreceptor surface, and which cleans excess toner from the photoreceptor surface. The apparatus further comprises a sensor that senses the start and the end of an operational procedure, and an actuator that rotates the blade holder about the pivot point to selectively advance or retract the blade during the start-up procedure and the shut-down procedure. After the cleaning surface has begun to move or reached operating speed, blade contact is increased to bring the blade load up to operational level. By making this change to the conventional static cleaning blade, the peak stress at start-up and shut-down is much reduced and cleaning blade life and reliability are much improved. | 01-26-2012 |
20120020711 | CLEANING EDGE MODIFICATION FOR IMPROVED CLEANING BLADE LIFE AND RELIABILITY - According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided an apparatus comprising a cleaning unit with a blade holder that rotates about a pivot point, the cleaning blade is coupled to the blade holder and is positioned to chisel excess toner from a photoreceptor surface. Geometrical changes produce a blade having a plurality of slanted surfaces at the working end of the blade one at an obtuse angle, in the range of 93 degrees to 97 degrees, and a second at an acute angle that forms an offset point between the cleaning edge and the intersection of the two angles. A double cut allows for improvement in the cleaning tip stiffness using the first cut, while the second cut increases the contact width and improves the pressure distribution at the working edge. | 01-26-2012 |
20120020712 | ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC MARKING SYSTEM WITH BLADE CUT ANGLES FOR LONGER BLADE LIFE - According to aspects of the embodiments, there is provided an apparatus comprising a cleaning unit with a blade holder that rotates about a pivot point, the cleaning blade is coupled to the blade holder and is positioned to chisel excess toner from a photoreceptor surface. Geometrical changes produce a blade having a slanted surface that reduces cyclic fatigue stress at the blade tip and reduces blade edge wear. The blade has a sharp leading side, a trailing side, and a working end comprising a slanted surface. When the slanted surface is formed at an angle between 93 degrees to 97 degrees stiffer tips is produced and wears resulting from blade and photoreceptor surface contact is reduced. | 01-26-2012 |
20120106781 | SIGNATURE BASED DRIVE-THROUGH ORDER TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system and method for providing signature-based drive-through order tracking. An image with respect to a vehicle at a POS unit can be captured at an order point and a delivery point (e.g., a payment point and a pick-up point) utilizing an image capturing unit by detecting the presence of the vehicle at each point utilizing a vehicle presence sensor. The captured image can be processed in order to extract a small region of interest and can be reduced to a unique signature. The extracted signature of the vehicle at the order point can be stored into a database together with the corresponding order and the vehicle image. The signature extracted at the delivery point can be matched with the signature stored in the database. If a match is found, the order associated with the vehicle together with the images captured at the delivery point and the order point can be displayed in a user interface at the delivery point to ensure that the right order is delivered to a customer. | 05-03-2012 |
20120155712 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION USING ADAPTIVE FEATURE SET - A method for determining a confidence level to be used in identifying a vehicle. The method includes receiving a vehicle image, extracting a license plate image from the at least one vehicle image, determining a license plate number and associated confidence level based upon the license plate image, and comparing the associated confidence level against a confidence threshold. If the associated confidence level is below the confidence threshold, the method further includes extracting auxiliary data from the at least one vehicle image, corresponding the extracted auxiliary data and a set of stored auxiliary data, and updating the associated confidence level to produce an updated confidence level based upon the correspondence of the extracted auxiliary data and the set of stored auxiliary data. | 06-21-2012 |
20120263352 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR VERIFYING AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION RESULTS - Methods and systems for verifying automatic license plate recognition results providing an input image of a license plate to a processing system that extracts bitmap data from the provided input image and determines a particular license template image associated with the license plate input image. The processing system segments the input image bitmap data into text region bitmap data and outer region bitmap data and then matches the input image text region bitmap data and input image outer region bitmap data against text region bitmap data and outer region bitmap data, respectively, of the license plate image template to determine if there is a match between the license plate of the input image and the template license plate. | 10-18-2012 |
20130129152 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVING YIELD IN WANTED VEHICLE SEARCHES - In response to determining that a target vehicle is at large, identification information associated with the target vehicle's license plate may be retrieved and used to generate one or more synthetic license plate images. The synthetic license plate images may be subjected to one or more transformation to cause them to resemble authentic license plate image captures and/or to mimic authentic license plate image captures from existing and operational ALPR system cameras. Target signatures may then be calculated from the synthetic license plate images. Upon capturing an authentic license plate image using an ALPR system camera, a signature of the authentic license plate image may be calculated. If a match is found between the signature of the authentic license plate image and a target signature, law enforcement may be alerted that the target vehicle was detected at the location of the ALPR system camera. | 05-23-2013 |
20130129365 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TROUBLESHOOTING CHARGING AND PHOTORECEPTOR FAILURE MODES ASSOCIATED WITH A XEROGRAPHIC PROCESS - This disclosure provides methods and systems for troubleshooting charging and photoreceptor failure modes associated with a xerographic process. Specifically, according to an exemplary method the photoreceptor decay behavior, with and without the effects of depletion, are quantified and used to determine a performance state of one or more of the charging stations and the photoreceptor surface. | 05-23-2013 |
20130141586 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING AN ORDER WITH AN OBJECT IN A MULTIPLE LANE ENVIRONMENT - Images with respect to an object at an ordering, payment, and delivery locations can be captured utilizing an image capturing system. Capture can be after detecting the presence of the object at each location utilizing an object presence sensor. The captured image can be processed to associate it with a signature and can also be processed in order to extract a small region of interest (e.g., license plate) and can be reduced to a unique signature. Signature can be stored into a database together with the corresponding order and images. Signatures can be matched. The order associated with the object matched by the system together with at least one of the images captured at the delivery point and the order point can be displayed at a user interface located at the payment/delivery point to ensure that the right order is delivered to the right customer asscoiated with the object. | 06-06-2013 |
20130182910 | LICENSE PLATE OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION METHOD AND SYSTEM - A method and system for recognizing a license plate character utilizing a machine learning classifier. A license plate image with respect to a vehicle can be captured by an image capturing unit and the license plate image can be segmented into license plate character images. The character image can be preprocessed to remove a local background variation in the image and to define a local feature utilizing a quantization transformation. A classification margin for each character image can be identified utilizing a set of machine learning classifiers each binary in nature, for the character image. Each binary classifier can be trained utilizing a character sample as a positive class and all other characters as well as non-character images as a negative class. The character type associated with the classifier with a largest classification margin can be determined and the OCR result can be declared. | 07-18-2013 |
20130204719 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION TO ENABLE ADVANCE ORDER PICKUP - An embodiment generally relates to systems and methods for processing orders associated with an establishment. In particular, a customer can submit a remote order for goods offered by the establishment, along with an associated license plate number of a vehicle that is to pick up the order. An image capture device can capture images of a vehicle on the premises of the establishment, and provide the images to a processing module which use automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) techniques to determine license plate data of the vehicle. The processing module can further examine an order list to determine if the license plate data is associated with an order on the order list, and, if so, add the order to a priority queue. | 08-08-2013 |
20130243260 | METHODS, SYSTEMS AND PROCESSOR-READABLE MEDIA FOR TRACKING HISTORY DATA UTILIZING VEHICLE AND FACIAL INFORMATION - A method and system for tracking a customer history data utilizing a combination of vehicle and facial information. A license plate image with respect to a customer vehicle can be captured and information with respect to the license plate obtained. The license plate information can be employed as an unique customer identifier with respect to customer history data, if the customer places an order (e.g., drive-through service). Facial images of the customer upon entry to a store and/or upon checkout can be captured and processed. The checkout image can be matched against a set of images in order to associate customer order information with customer history data identified from the license plate information for tracking an in-store order transaction. | 09-19-2013 |
20130259314 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION APPLICATIONS UTILIZING MULTIPLE RESULTS - Method and system for enhancing performance of an automated license plate recognition system utilizing multiple results is disclosed herein. Multiple images can be captured as a vehicle passes through an observation zone and each image can be processed utilizing an ALPR unit to obtain a plate code result and associated confidence values. An iterative processing of character level information across an OCR code followed by a higher level error checking based on learned context information can be performed. A string correlation approach can be employed to optimally align the OCR code from multiple images despite noise factors. The OCR confidence and state mask information can then be leveraged to select a character for an output plate code taking into account the ALPR error sources. Such an approach leads to a more accurate result and increases the system yield. | 10-03-2013 |
20130272579 | ROBUST CROPPING OF LICENSE PLATE IMAGES - A method, system, and computer-usable tangible storage device for robustly cropping and accurately recognizing license plates to account for noise sources and interfering artifacts are disclosed. License plate images and sub-images can be tightly cropped utilizing an image-based classifier and gradient-based cropping. An image-based classifier can identify the location of valid characters within the image. Because of a number of noise sources, such as, for example, residual plate rotation and shear in the characters within the image, the image-based classifier performs a “rough” identification of the image boundaries. An additional processing step utilizing gradient-based cropping is performed to fine-tune the license plate image boundaries. Gradient-based cropping eliminates unwanted border artifacts that could substantially impact the segmentation and license plate character recognition results. | 10-17-2013 |
20130279758 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ROBUST TILT ADJUSTMENT AND CROPPING OF LICENSE PLATE IMAGES - Methods, systems and processor-readable media for robust tilt adjustment and cropping of a license plate image. A vehicle image can be captured by an image-capturing unit and converted to a binary image utilizing a binarization approach. A long run within the binary image can then be removed and a morphological filtering can be applied to break an unwanted connection between characters due to a license plate frame and an image noise. A connected component (CC) within the image can be identified and screened based on a number of key metrics to remove a most likely candidate character connected component. A line-fit based iterative search process can then be performed for robust tilt removal and vertical cropping of the license plate image to obtain a tight bounding box on the license plate characters if sufficient candidate characters remain after the search process. Otherwise, the region of interest can be rejected. | 10-24-2013 |
20130282420 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REALTIME OCCUPANCY DETECTION OF VEHICLES APPROACHING RETAIL SITE FOR PREDICTIVE ORDERING - Embodiments relate to systems and methods for realtime occupancy detection of vehicles approaching a retail site for predictive ordering. A restaurant or other retail site can maintain access areas, such as a drive through lane or parking area, which vehicles can approach to order food or other items. A set of sensors can detect the vehicles, and estimate the number of occupants in those vehicles. Detection techniques can include face detection technology, seat detection technology, thermal imaging, or others. The number of occupants can be estimated and sent to a production management engine monitoring the site. That engine can responsively issue production instructions, such as a number and type of food items to prepare, and when. By integrating an operational model of the site, including projected order amounts and types, with the realtime occupant count, more accurate matching of food or other production to customer demand can be achieved. | 10-24-2013 |
20130294652 | License plate character segmentation using likelihood maximization - A method determines a license plate layout configuration. The method includes generating at least one model representing a license plate layout configuration. The generating includes segmenting training images each defining a license plate to extract characters and logos from the training images. The segmenting includes calculating values corresponding to parameters of the license plate and features of the characters and logos. The segmenting includes estimating a likelihood function specified by the features using the values. The likelihood function measures deviations between an observed plate and the model. The method includes storing a layout structure and the distributions for each of the at least one model. The method includes receiving as input an observed image including a plate region. The method includes segmenting the plate region and determining a license plate layout configuration of the observed plate by comparing the segmented plate region to the at least one model. | 11-07-2013 |
20130294653 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR OPTIMIZED PARAMETER SELECTION IN AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION - A system and method for automatically recognizing license plate information, the method comprising receiving an image of a license plate, and generating a plurality of image processing data sets, wherein each image processing data set of the plurality of image processing data sets is associated with a score of a plurality of scores by a scoring process comprising determining one or more image processing parameters, generating the image processing data set by processing the image using the one or more image processing parameters, generating the score based on the image processing data, and associating the image processing data set with the score. | 11-07-2013 |
20130294654 | ROBUST CHARACTER SEGMENTATION FOR LICENSE PLATE IMAGES - A method and system for achieving accurate segmentation of characters with respect to a license plate image within a tight bounding box image. A vehicle image can be captured by an image capturing unit and processed utilizing an ALPR unit. A vertical projection histogram can be calculated to produce an initial character boundary (cuts) and local statistical information can be employed to split a large cut and insert a missing character. The cut can be classified as a valid and/or a suspect character and the suspect character can be analyzed. The suspect character can be normalized and passed to an OCR module for decoding and generating a confidence quote with every conclusion. The non-character images can be rejected at the OCR level by enforcing a confidence threshold. An adjoining suspect narrow character can be combined and the OCR confidence of the combined character can be assessed. | 11-07-2013 |
20140079315 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR REDUCING MEMORY FOOTPRINTS ASSOCIATED WITH CLASSIFIERS - Methods and systems for reducing the required footprint of SNoW-based classifiers via optimization of classifier features. A compression technique involves two training cycles. The first cycle proceeds normally and the classifier weights from this cycle are used to rank the Successive Mean Quantization Transform (SMQT) features using several criteria. The top N (out of 512 features) are then chosen and the training cycle is repeated using only the top N features. It has been found that OCR accuracy is maintained using only 60 out of 512 features leading to an 88% reduction in RAM utilization at runtime. This coupled with a packing of the weights from doubles to single byte integers added a further 8× reduction in RAM footprint or a reduction of 68× over the baseline SNoW method. | 03-20-2014 |
20140169633 | EMERGENCY RESCUE VEHICLE VIDEO BASED VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT METHOD AND SYSTEM - Disclosed are methods and systems for monitoring and reporting road violations of vehicles sharing roads with responding emergency vehicles. According to an exemplary method video is captured from a forward and/or rear facing camera mounted to an emergency vehicle, and the video is processed to identify any vehicles in violation within a prescribed distance from the emergency vehicle. A license plate id of a vehicle determined to be in violation is identified and communicated to the appropriate authorities. | 06-19-2014 |
20140270353 | DICTIONARY DESIGN FOR COMPUTATIONALLY EFFICIENT VIDEO ANOMALY DETECTION VIA SPARSE RECONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES - Methods, systems, and processor-readable media for pruning a training dictionary for use in detecting anomalous events from surveillance video. Training samples can be received, which correspond to normal events. A dictionary can then be constructed, which includes two or more classes of normal events from the training samples. Sparse codes are then generated for selected training samples with respect to the dictionary derived from the two or more classes of normal events. The size of the dictionary can then be reduced by removing redundant dictionary columns from the dictionary via analysis of the sparse codes. The dictionary is then optimized to yield a low reconstruction error and a high-interclass discriminability. | 09-18-2014 |
20140301606 | DATA AUGMENTATION METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION - Methods, systems, and processor-readable media for data augmentation utilized in an automatic license plate recognition engine. A machine-readable code can be associated with an automatic license plate recognition engine. The machine-readable code can be configured to define parameters that drive processing within the automatic license plate recognition engine to produce recognition results thereof and enhance a machine readability of a license plate recognized and analyzed via the automatic license plate recognition engine. | 10-09-2014 |
20140307924 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CHARACTER SEGMENTATION IN AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION APPLICATIONS - Methods and systems for character segmentation in an automatic license plate recognition application. One or more images of a license plate are acquired. Then, a pixel-level importance may be calculated with respect to the image(s) of the license plate based on information within the image, such as gradient information and raw grayscale information. A seam selection can be then applied with respect to the pixel-level importance map and the image(s) by enforcing constraints based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for character segmentation with respect to the image(s) of the license plate. | 10-16-2014 |
20140328518 | METHODS, SYSTEMS AND PROCESSOR-READABLE MEDIA FOR DESIGNING A LICENSE PLATE OVERLAY DECAL HAVING INFRARED ANNOTATION MARKS - Methods, systems and processor-readable media for providing a license plate overlay decal with an infrared readable annotation mark for an optical character recognition and segmentation. The annotation mark with respect to character image of a license plate can be designed by training an ALPR engine to improve automatic license plate recognition performance. A plate overlay decal can be rendered with the annotation mark and attached to a license plate. The annotation mark can also be directly placed on the license plate when the license plate is rendered. The annotation mark is visible when illuminated by an infrared light and the license plate appears normal in visible light. The annotation mark enables an ALPR imaging system to obtain more information for each character and utilize the information to improve conclusion accuracy. | 11-06-2014 |
20140348391 | SNOW CLASSIFIER CONTEXT WINDOW REDUCTION USING CLASS T-SCORES AND MEAN DIFFERENCES - Methods, systems and processor-readable media for determining, post training, which locations of a classifier window are most significant in discriminating between class and non-class objects. The important locations can be determined by calculating the mean and standard deviation of every pixel location in the classifier context for both the positive and negative samples of the classifier. Using a combination of t-scores and mean differences, the importance of all pixel locations in the classifier score can be rank ordered. A sufficient number of pixel locations can then be selected to achieve a detection rate close enough to the full classifier for a particular application. | 11-27-2014 |
20140348392 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY DETERMINING THE ISSUING STATE OF A LICENSE PLATE - Methods and systems for automatically determining the issuing state of a license plate. An image of a license plate acquired by an ALPR engine can be processed via one or more OCR engines such that each OCR engine among the OCR engines is tuned to a particular state. Confidence data output from the OCR engine(s) can be analyzed (among other factors) to estimate the issuing state associated with the license plate. Multiple observations related to the issuing state can be merged to derive an overall conclusion and assign an associated confidence value with respect to the confidence data and determine a likely issuing state associated with the license plate. | 11-27-2014 |
20140355836 | Dynamic Adjustment of Automatic License Plate Recognition Processing Based on Vehicle Class Information - Methods and systems for improving automated license plate recognition performance. One or more images of a vehicle can be captured via an automated license plate recognition engine. Vehicle class information associated with the vehicle can be obtained using the automated license place recognition engine. Such vehicle class information can be analyzed with respect to the vehicle. Finally, data can be dynamically adjusted with respect to the vehicle based on a per image basis to enhance recognition of the vehicle via the automated license plate recognition engine. | 12-04-2014 |
20140363051 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SELECTING TARGET VEHICLES FOR OCCUPANCY DETECTION - Methods and systems for selecting a target vehicle for occupancy detection utilizing vehicle identification information. The vehicle identification information (e.g., license plate information) can be obtained from a vehicle identification unit (e.g., ALPR) to identify a vehicle approaching a high occupancy measurement zone. The vehicle identification information from the vehicle identification unit can be transferred to a vehicle occupancy unit having a flash illuminator unit and an image-capturing unit. The flash illuminator unit and the image-capturing unit are not enabled if the vehicle's occupancy state has already been measured at a prior location based on the vehicle identification information. The vehicle occupancy detection unit and the vehicle identification unit work together in a coordinated fashion to reduce the number of times the flash illuminator unit needs to fire and extends the life of the illuminator unit, thus reducing the cost of maintenance. | 12-11-2014 |
20150054957 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED SEQUENCING OF VEHICLE UNDER LOW SPEED CONDITIONS FROM VIDEO - A computer-implemented method, system, and computer-readable medium is disclosed for determining a sequence order for vehicles in one or more image frames from an operational video, the operational video acquired from a fixed video camera comprising a field of view associated with a vehicle merge area where upstream traffic from a first lane and upstream traffic from a second lane merge to a single lane. The method can include obtaining operational video from a fixed video camera; detecting, within a region of interest (ROI) of the one or more image frames from the operational video, a first area and a second area in the vehicle merge area using a trained classifier that is trained to detect the first area and the second area; and determining the sequence order of the vehicles based on the first area and the second area that are detected. | 02-26-2015 |