Systems and Methods for Enhancing Image Content Captured by a Machine Vision Camera

Abstract

Systems and methods for enhancing image content captured by a machine vision camera are disclosed herein. An example method includes receiving an image captured by a machine vision camera that includes a plurality of indicia, determining bounds of a bounding box for each respective indicia, and displaying a plurality of entries corresponding to the respective indicia. The example method further includes receiving a selection of an entry, and determining coordinate limits of the bounding box and a secondary box of the entry. The example method further includes displaying the image such that a center-point of the secondary box is positioned near a center-point of a display region, and scaling the image such that at least one of a vertical pixel count or a horizontal pixel count of the secondary box is within a ratio threshold of a vertical pixel count or a horizontal pixel count of the display region.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority from provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 63 / 182,392, filed on Apr. 30, 2021, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]Over the years, industrial automation has come to rely heavily on machine vision components capable of assisting operators in a wide variety of tasks. In some implementations, machine vision components, like cameras, are utilized to track objects passing objects, like those which move on conveyor belts past stationary cameras. Often these cameras, along with the backend software, are used to capture images and determine a variety of parameters associated with the passing items. One aspect of this requires easy to use means to visualize various elements on the screen of a user computing device executing the backend software. Thus, there exists a need for improved systems and methods which, provide such features.SUMMARY[0003]In an embodiment, the present i...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a method to enhance image content captured by a machine vision camera. The method involves identifying indicia in the image, determining bounds of the indicia, and displaying a plurality of entries on a user interface. The entries correspond to the indicia in the image. An upper pixel coordinate limit, a lower pixel coordinate limit, a first side pixel coordinate limit, and a second side pixel coordinate limit are determined from the indicia's bounds. A secondary box is also determined based on the coordinates of the upper and lower bounds, as well as the first and second side bounds. The image is then scaled based on predetermined ratio thresholds to maintain the quality of the image. Overall, this method improves the accuracy and clarity of image content captured by a machine vision camera.

Problems solved by technology

This can be difficult to accomplish in an automatic manner, especially if multiple elements of the same kind are present on the screen.

Achieving this functionality can be particularly difficult due to the fact that indicia may come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (e.g., barcodes 302, 304 and indicia 322, 324), and that depending on the operating environment, the dimensions of the indicia as they appear in the captured image may vary greatly.

However, such an increase would cause the secondary box (and thus the indicia that is displayed therein) to increase to a height of 4000 pixels; which is beyond the display capabilities of the display region.

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