JP4241072B2 - Bar code reader - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a barcode reader, and more particularly to a barcode reader that can simultaneously read a plurality of barcodes attached to a single packaging box or the like in association with each other.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Bar code data obtained by capturing multiple products with a digital camera and inputting digitized image data, extracting image data corresponding to the bar code pattern from this image data, and recognizing the bar code There is known a barcode reader that searches for product information corresponding to the item information stored in a product data memory (Patent Document 1).
[0003]
In addition, while moving the moving body with the barcode label attached on the belt conveyor, the photograph is taken with a multi-camera unit consisting of a plurality of cameras and a synchronizing circuit installed on the belt conveyor, and the barcode is extracted from this image. In addition, there is known a barcode reader that detects the inclination of a barcode, extracts a feature amount of the barcode according to the inclination, and reads the barcode based on the extracted feature amount (Patent Document 2). .
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-9-114913 [Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-185671
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in one packaging box containing a plurality of products, for example, a barcode indicating a serial number of the packaging box and a barcode indicating information (product name, number, etc.) of the products stored in the packaging box are called. In this way, a plurality of related barcode labels may be attached. However, Patent Documents 1 and 2 are based on the premise that one bar code is provided for each product, and a plurality of bar codes provided in one packaging box are related to each other. There was a problem that it could not be read.
[0006]
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a barcode reader that can simultaneously read a plurality of barcodes provided in a single packaging box in association with each other. And
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problem, a bar code reading device of the present invention, shooting barcode title compound in which one digital picture image data or et plurality of bar codes of a captured image of obtained is denoted by For each contour information of the bar code notation, the mask contour storing means for extracting the contour information of the bar code, the mask image storing means for storing the mask image created in advance using the patterned contour information , and the mask The mask image read from the image storage means is overlaid with the image of the bar code notation, and a plurality of the bar images are combined from the image synthesized so as to cover the bar code notation image excluding the bar code in the photographed image. a plurality barcode position specifying means for specifying a position of the code, and reading means for reading the bar code position is specified by the plurality barcode position specifying means respectively Corresponding data storage means for storing corresponding data corresponding to the barcode, each barcode read by the reading means, and correspondence data corresponding to each barcode stored in the correspondence data storage means It consists of a work memory that is stored in association with each other.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In FIG. 1 showing a barcode reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, the barcode reading apparatus 1 includes a digital camera 2 and an image processing apparatus 3 connected thereto. The digital camera 2 inputs the digitized image data to the image processing device 3 by photographing the side surface 5a of the packaging box 5 as a bar code notation.
[0011]
The digital camera 2 is connected with an external strobe device 6 that illuminates the side surface 5a in synchronization with the shutter. Further, according to the number of packaging boxes 5 to be photographed, the photographing distance between the digital camera 2 and the packaging box 5, the photographing magnification of the zoom lens 7 and the number of recording pixels are fixed, and one packaging box 5 is photographed. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the captured image 29 of the side surface 5a is always captured with a constant image size. Reference numeral 29 a indicates a contour image of the captured image 29, and reference numeral 30 indicates one shot of the entire captured image captured by the digital camera 2.
[0012]
Barcode labels 8 and 9 are attached to the side surface 5a of the packaging box 5 at two locations, and the barcodes 10 and 11 are printed on the barcode labels 8 and 9, respectively. The position where the bar code labels 8 and 9 are attached is determined in advance by the shape and size of the side surface 5a of the packaging box 5. The bar code 10 indicates a serial number of the packaging box 5, and the bar code 11 indicates a POS (Point of Sale) code of a product stored in the packaging box 5. The product stored in the packaging box 5 is a lens-fitted photo film unit manufactured and sold by the applicant.
[0013]
In FIG. 2 schematically showing the configuration of the image processing apparatus 3, the image processing apparatus 3 includes a control unit 15, a ROM 16, an image data memory 17, an outline emphasizing unit 18 as an outline extracting unit, and an image as a barcode position specifying unit. The composition unit 19 includes a work memory 20, a mask image memory 21, a product POS data memory 22, a hard disk 23, a display memory 24, a liquid crystal display 25, and an operation unit 26.
[0014]
The control unit 15 controls the entire sequence of the barcode reading apparatus 1 in accordance with a program stored in the ROM 16. The image data memory 17 is a memory for storing image data input by the digital camera 2, and the work memory 20 is a memory used as a work area for the control unit 15.
[0015]
The mask image memory 21 stores image data of a plurality of mask images in which the barcode positions are set in advance according to the shape and size of the side surface of the packaging box. In FIG. 4 showing an example of the mask image, the mask image 31 is formed with rectangular openings 31 a and 31 b that expose the barcodes 10 and 11 corresponding to the side surface 5 a of the packaging box 5. By overlapping the captured image 29 (see FIG. 3), the mask portion 31c represented by hatching covers the portions other than the barcodes 10 and 11 (see FIG. 5). Thereby, the position of the barcode is specified. The mask image may be created by photographing a mask actually created with paperboard or the like with the digital camera 2, or may be created (CG) with a computer.
[0016]
The product POS data memory 22 stores in advance for verification the product name, the number of products per packaging box, the date of manufacture, and the country of manufacture as POS data corresponding to the barcode 11 data. Further, the contour emphasizing unit 18 reads out the image data stored in the image data memory 17 and performs well-known contour emphasis processing and binarization processing on the image data to obtain image data of the side 25a with clear contours and less noise. create.
[0017]
The liquid crystal display 25 displays data such as a collection result of product information and an error message described later. The display memory 24 is a video memory that performs dot expansion of data to be displayed on the liquid crystal display 25. The operation unit 6 is an input device that includes various operation keys that are pressed during processing that requires manual operation.
[0018]
Here, the contents stored in the product POS data memory 22 will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, reference numerals 41 and 42 denote a barcode data area and a product POS data area, respectively. The barcode data is obtained by digitizing a barcode consisting of a white bar and a black bar, and is stored in the barcode data area 41. The product POS data is product POS information in which the product name indicated by the barcode data, the number of products per packaging box, the date of manufacture, and the name of the exporting country are converted into data, and the product POS data corresponding to the barcode data. Stored in area 42.
[0019]
The operation of the barcode reader 1 configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the digital camera 2 is set apart from the position of the packaging box 5 by a predetermined distance. Then, the recording pixel number of the digital camera 2 and the photographing magnification of the zoom lens 7 are set to predetermined numerical values.
[0020]
When the operator releases the shutter of the digital camera 2, the external strobe device 6 emits light synchronously and the side surface 5 a of the packaging box 5 is photographed. The optical image of the side surface 5a is converted into an electrical signal by the CCD image sensor of the digital camera 2, and further converted into digital image data by an internal image processing circuit, and then output to the image processing device 3.
[0021]
The control unit 15 captures image data of a captured image 29 (see FIG. 3) captured by the digital camera 2 and stores it in the image data memory 17. The image data of the captured image 29 is sent to the contour emphasizing unit 18, subjected to contour emphasis processing and binarization processing, and then sent to the image composition unit 19.
[0022]
The control unit 15 reads the mask image 31 corresponding to the contour image 29 a of the captured image 29 from the mask image memory 21 and sends it to the image composition unit 19. As shown in FIG. 5, the image composition unit 19 creates a composite image 32 by superimposing a mask image 31 on the captured image 29. As a result, the entire area of the captured image 29 except for the barcodes 10 and 11 and a slight periphery is covered with the mask portion 31c of the mask image 31, so that the positions of the barcodes 10 and 11 are clearly identified.
[0023]
The controller 15 scans the openings 31a and 31b pinpoint to decode the barcodes 10 and 11 into barcode data (numerical values). The barcode data of the barcode 11 is collated with the barcode data stored in the product POS data memory 22, and the corresponding product POS data is read from the product POS data memory 22, and the barcode data of the barcode 10 is read. A pair with a serial number is stored in the work memory 20. The serial number is a serial number of the packaging box 5. As a result, the packaging unit 5 with the serial number “1” contains 100 lens film units “Photocopying Simple Eye800” manufactured on October 10, 2002. The product information about the packaging box 5 to be exported to New York is stored in the work memory 20.
[0024]
In the same manner, the side surfaces of the other packaging boxes are sequentially photographed, two barcodes are read simultaneously, collated, and the product information is stored in the work memory 20. After reading the barcodes for all the packaging boxes to be read, the product information stored in the work memory 20 is moved to the hard disk 23. For example, if the product information is sorted using “exporting country” as a keyword, information on what type of lens-fitted film units is shipped on the liquid crystal display 25 for each exporting country. .
[0025]
In this way, since two barcodes provided in one packaging box can be automatically associated and read, unlike the case where the operator associates the barcodes after reading them one by one, no association error occurs. . Accordingly, the work efficiency of inspection and the like is remarkably improved in the business of managing a packaging box packed with a plurality of products.
[0026]
As shown in FIG. 8, when a plurality of packaging boxes 5 are photographed at a time, the photographed image per side surface with respect to the entire photographed image 30 becomes small. Therefore, the image data of the corresponding mask image is masked. Stored in the image memory 21. The shooting distance, the zoom magnification of the zoom lens 7 and the number of recording pixels are determined according to the number of packaging boxes 5, and according to this, the side surface 5a of the packaging box 5 which is stacked two horizontally and three vertically is digitally displayed. When the image is taken by the camera 2, as shown in FIG. 9, six taken images 45 on the side surface 5a are stored in the whole taken image 30.
[0027]
When the image emphasis processing and binarization processing are performed on the image data of the captured image 45 by the contour emphasizing unit 18, the entire contour image 45a and the boundary line image 45b of the side surface 5a become clear. A mask image corresponding to the shape and size of the areas A to F surrounded by the contour image 45a and the boundary line image 45b is read from the mask image memory 21 and superimposed on each of the areas A to F. Then, the barcodes 10 and 11 are scanned pinpoint, and the product POS data in the areas A to F are read from the product POS data memory 22 and stored in the work memory 20 together with the barcode data. Since the following is the same as the above-described embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.
[0028]
Next, another embodiment will be described. Similar to the above-described embodiment, the side surfaces 5 a of the six packaging boxes 5 are photographed at once by the digital camera 2. The entire captured image 45 thus obtained is scanned to extract a black stripe pattern that is a feature of the barcode. The extracted striped pattern extraction image is subjected to expansion processing and reduction processing, and the areas of the bar code labels 46 and 47 are extracted. Then, as shown in FIG. 10, the leading coordinates 48 to 59 of each area represented by a saddle shape are calculated and stored in the work memory 20.
[0029]
On the other hand, the image data of the captured image 45 is subjected to the contour emphasis processing and binarization processing by the contour emphasizing unit 18, and the entire contour image 45a and the boundary line image 45b of the side surface 5a are clarified. For the areas A to F surrounded by the contour image 45a and the boundary line image 45b, two barcodes are associated from the two leading coordinates included in each of the areas A to F. That is, in the area A, it can be specified that the barcodes 61 and 63 are a pair, the barcode 61 indicates a serial number, and the barcode 63 indicates product POS data. The same applies to the regions B to F, and as a result, a table 60 as shown in FIG. 11 is obtained.
[0030]
Then, the product POS data corresponding to the barcodes 63, 64, 67, 68, 71, 72 is read from the product POS data memory 22, and the product POS data corresponding to the barcode 63 together with the serial number of the barcode 61 is processed. Store in the memory 20 and store the product POS data corresponding to the barcode 64 together with the serial number of the barcode 62 in the work memory 20... Corresponding to the barcode 72 together with the serial number of the barcode 70 The product POS data to be stored is stored in the work memory 20. Since the following is the same as the above embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.
[0031]
Next, another embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13. The digital camera 70 has a built-in barcode reading function and can be used as a barcode reading device. In addition, the description is abbreviate | omitted using the same code | symbol to what was mentioned previously.
[0032]
The digital camera 70 includes a zoom lens 71, a solid-state imaging device (CCD image sensor) 72, a correlated double sampling circuit (CDS) 73, an A / D converter 74, a digital processing circuit 75, a CPU 76, an image memory 77, a memory 78, It comprises an image display circuit 79, a liquid crystal panel (LCD) 81, an information display circuit 82, a PC-I / F 83 for connecting a personal computer, a lens driving circuit 84, a strobe circuit 85, a strobe light emitting unit 86, and a switch input circuit 87. The switch input circuit 87 performs various settings and switches the digital camera 70 between a normal photographing mode and a barcode reading mode.
[0033]
The CDS 73 outputs R, G, B image data that accurately corresponds to the amount of charge stored in each cell of the CCD image sensor 72. This image data is converted into digital image data by the A / D converter 74 and then input to the digital processing circuit 75.
[0034]
The digital processing circuit 75 has the same functions as the contour emphasizing unit 18 and the image synthesizing unit 19 of the image processing apparatus 3 in addition to general image processing functions such as gamma correction. The CPU 76 controls the entire digital camera 70 and fulfills the function of the control unit 15. Further, the memory 78 performs the same function as the work memory 20, and similarly to the mask image memory 21 and the commodity POS data memory 22, a plurality of mask image image data, barcode data, and corresponding to this. Stored POS data.
[0035]
The digital processing circuit 75 performs general image processing on the image data output from the A / D converter 74 and inputs the image data to the image memory 77. In the barcode reading mode, the digital processing circuit 75 reads the image data from the image memory 77 according to a command from the CPU 76. After the image data is read out and subjected to contour emphasis processing and binarization processing to create image data with clear contours and less noise, a mask image 31 is superimposed on the captured image 29 to create a composite image 32.
[0036]
The CPU 76 scans the openings 31a and 31b pinpointly to decode the barcodes 10 and 11 into barcode data, compares the barcode data with the barcode data read from the memory 78, and corresponds to the barcode 11. The product POS data is read from the memory 78 and stored in the memory 78 in a pair with the serial number which is the barcode data of the barcode 10.
[0037]
The product information stored in the memory 78 is sent to the image display circuit 79 by the information display circuit 82 and displayed on the LCD 81. The product information is transferred to the hard disk of a personal computer connected to the digital camera 70 via the PC-I / F 83 and used for product management. Of course, the digital camera 70 can be applied to a case where a plurality of packaging boxes 5 are photographed at a time as shown in FIG.
[0038]
In the embodiment described above, two barcodes are attached to one packaging box, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, three barcodes to one packaging box. It is possible to read this by one shooting. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the product POS data includes a product name, the number of products per packaging box, the date of manufacture, and the name of the country of manufacture. However, the present invention is not limited to this. is there. In the above embodiment, the packaging box is used as the bar code notation, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any object can be used as long as it can be created by patterning a mask image for each contour information in advance. Applicable.
[0039]
In the above embodiment, the barcode 10 indicates the serial number of the packaging box 5 and the barcode 11 indicates the POS code of the product stored in the packaging box 5. The bar code 10 may be a POS code of a product, the bar code 11 may indicate a serial number of the packaging box 5, or may have a completely different meaning. In addition, the product stored in the packaging box 5 is a lens-fitted photo film unit manufactured and sold by the applicant, but the present invention is not limited to this and may be a digital camera, for example.
[0040]
Further, in the above embodiment, the packaging unit 5 with the serial number “1” stores 100 lens unit with a lens “Shoot Rune Simple Eye800” manufactured on October 10, 2002. Although the product information about the packaging box 5 to be exported to New York is stored in the work memory 20, the present invention is of course not limited to these dates and product names.
[0041]
In the above embodiment, two packaging boxes 5 are stacked horizontally and three vertically. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be three horizontally and five vertically.
[0042]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the bar code reading device of the present invention, since the contour information of the shooting-obtained barcode title product to identify the position of the bar code reading bar codes, one of the bar Even if a plurality of barcodes are written on the code notation , these barcodes can be associated and read simultaneously. As a result, an association error can be prevented, and work efficiency of inspection and the like can be significantly improved. In addition, the mask image created by patterning each contour information of the bar code notation is overlapped with the bar code notation image to cover the bar code notation image excluding the bar code. The position of the barcode can be specified reliably.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a barcode reader and a packaging box.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a barcode reader.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an image captured by a digital camera.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a mask image.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a composite image obtained by superimposing a mask image and a captured image.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents stored in a product POS data memory.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a barcode reading procedure.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an image captured by the digital camera according to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing areas A to B and the top coordinates of each area of a bar code label.
FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing barcodes associated with areas A to B;
FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment in which a barcode reading function is built in a digital camera.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the digital camera.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bar code reader 2,70 Digital camera 3 Image processing apparatus 5 Packaging box 5a Side surface 8, 9, 46, 47 Bar code label 10, 11, 61-72 Bar code 15 Control part 16 ROM
17 Image data memory 18 Outline enhancement unit 19 Image composition unit 20 Work memory 21 Mask image memory 22 Product POS data memory 29, 45 Captured images 29a, 45a, 45b Contour image 31 Mask image 32 Composite image 48-59 First coordinate 72 CCD image Sensor 75 Digital processing circuit 76 CPU
AF area

Claims (1)

And a bar code contour extraction means shooting and one digital picture image data or et plurality of bar codes of a captured image of the obtained extracts contour information of the bar code representation thereof, labeled,
Mask image storage means for storing a mask image created in advance using the patterned contour information;
For each contour information of the barcode notation, the mask image read from the mask image storage means is superimposed on the image of the barcode notation, and the barcode notation of the barcode notation excluding the barcode in the captured image A plurality of barcode position specifying means for specifying positions of the plurality of barcodes from an image synthesized so as to cover the image ;
Reading means for reading each respective bar code position is specified by the plurality barcode position specifying means,
Corresponding data storage means for storing corresponding data corresponding to the barcode;
A bar code reading system comprising: a work memory that associates and stores each bar code read by the reading unit and corresponding data corresponding to each bar code stored in the corresponding data storage unit. apparatus.

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