Handheld Scanner Image Stitching via Coarse Fine Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Handheld scanners face challenges in accurately assembling successive image frames into a composite image without mechanical constraints, often resulting in poor image quality due to inaccurate navigation sensors and inefficient image processing techniques.
Innovation Solution
A method for forming a composite image by determining the coarse and fine positions of successive image frames using a combination of navigation information and image matching techniques, allowing for quick and accurate alignment and stitching of images, even when the scanner moves in unconstrained motions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If handheld scanner moves in unconstrained motions without mechanical constraints, then ease of operation is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical constraint systems with a computational image processing system. Instead of using mechanical guides or rails to constrain scanner motion, the system captures multiple overlapping images and uses software algorithms to detect features, calculate relative positions, and stitch images together, thereby substituting mechanical precision requirements with computational processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary computational process between the physical scanner motion and the final composite image. The image processing system acts as an intermediary that takes unordered image frames and navigation data, processes them through feature detection and position calculation algorithms, and produces the final stitched image, thereby mediating between unconstrained motion and precise image assembly.
2Productivity
If navigation sensors are used to track scanner position, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the system uses image content itself to verify and correct position measurements. Navigation sensors provide initial position estimates that enable rapid scanning, but the system continuously compares detected features across overlapping images to provide feedback on actual relative positions, allowing correction of navigation sensor errors and maintaining measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses navigation sensors to perform preliminary positioning that enables fast scanning and image capture. This preliminary action provides rough position estimates that allow the scanner to move quickly through the scanning area, while subsequent detailed image processing refines these positions. The preliminary navigation data enables productivity improvement without sacrificing final precision.
3Speed
If image processing techniques are simplified for real-time feedback, then speed is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the image processing into multiple stages: a first stage performs simplified processing for real-time feedback that provides coarse position estimates and enables rapid visualization, while a second stage performs more sophisticated processing to generate the final high-precision composite image. This segmentation allows speed improvement in the feedback loop without sacrificing final precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial processing in real-time, performing only the essential feature detection and coarse alignment needed for immediate feedback, while leaving more computationally intensive refinement steps for post-processing. This partial action provides sufficient speed for real-time user guidance without requiring complete precision processing at full speed.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer peripheral that may operate as a scanner. The scanner captures image frames as it is moved across an object. The image frames are formed into a composite image based on computations in two processes. In a first process, fast track processing determines a coarse position of each of the image frames based on a relative position between each successive image frame and a respective preceding image determine by matching overlapping portions of the image frames. In a second process, fine position adjustments are computed to reduce inconsistencies from determining positions of image frames based on relative positions to multiple prior image frames. The peripheral may also act as a mouse and may be configured with one or more navigation sensors that can be used to reduce processing time required to match a successive image frame to a preceding image frame.