WO2002032795A1

WO2002032795A1 - Method and apparatus for identifying goods

Info

Publication number: WO2002032795A1
Application number: PCT/JP2000/007197
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tomoaki Hachiya; Yasunobu Harada; Yuuichi Komazawa
Original assignee: Technowave, Ltd.
Priority date: 2000-10-17
Filing date: 2000-10-17
Publication date: 2002-04-25

Abstract

An apparatus comprises first imaging means (4) arranged along a passage (1), second imaging means (5), first image processing means (6) for processing the image of one side of an object taken by the first imaging means, second image processing means (7) for processing the image taken by the second imaging means, and means (10) for transferring data between the two image processing means. The first image processing means defines the area including the characters to be recognized, and sends the position information about the area to the second image processing means. The second imaging means takes an image of the same side of the object as the first imaging means did. The second image processing means processes information about the surface of the object based on the position information about the defined area.

Description

Description Baggage identification device and identification method

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a package recognition device for identifying information such as characters and graphics described on a package surface for a package flowing on a distribution conveyor or the like. Background art

Conventionally, in distribution systems, it is often necessary to classify packing boxes that are moving on a conveyor line and send them to the downstream side.

As a method of managing this type of distribution product, there has been a method of reading a bar code attached to a package. The disadvantage is that this type of information cannot be checked visually. In addition, it is necessary to attach a bar code to classify the package. By the way, the luggage usually contains characters, graphics, etc. indicating the name, quantity, etc. of the contents.

This is written so that humans can grasp the contents of the package, but if this information can be read and used, it is efficient without waste. However, there is a huge amount of image information for trying to recognize characters, figures, etc. written on the package surface by image recognition. For example, consider the case where character recognition processing is performed using image data captured by a CCD camera and subjected to various types of image processing such as binarization processing. Structure The structure is a collection of data expressed in a unit system that calls for 3 bytes of 1 byte each for red, blue, and green with 1 dot.Image data of 640 dots in the horizontal direction and 480 dots in the vertical direction. The total number of bytes is three times as large as 92,600 bytes. From this data, an enormous amount of data processing is required to extract the area where the characters and figures are described and to recognize the characters and figures described in that area.

In addition, since the luggage flows one after another, this process must be completed before the next luggage flows. Alternatively, it is possible to avoid this problem by sharing image data among multiple CPUs, but if multiple CPUs need hardware to share data, complex and expensive systems can be used. I had to help.

Therefore, in spite of the above-described convenience, the conventional image recognition apparatus does not read the character / graphic information from the surface of the moving luggage. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to use a dedicated reading description, to temporarily stop the system, to share image data, The purpose of the present invention is to provide a device capable of recognizing a package by reading information on characters and figures written on a surface. Disclosure of the invention

To achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 is

An apparatus for identifying baggage surface information of a baggage moving along a flow path, wherein first imaging means arranged on the upstream side of the flow path,

Second imaging means arranged on the downstream side, First image processing means for processing image data of the baggage surface captured from the first imaging means;

Second image processing means for processing image data of the baggage surface captured from the second imaging means;

An apparatus having first image processing means and information transmission means between the second image processing means,

The first imaging means captures the baggage surface and captures it as image data,

The first image processing means determines an area in which information to be recognized is described in the image data of the baggage surface captured from the first imaging means, and transmits the position information of the area to the information transmitting means. The second imaging means transmits the same luggage surface as the one imaged by the first imaging means again and captures it as image data.

The second image processing means performs baggage surface information recognition processing based on the image data of the baggage surface captured from the second imaging means based on the position information of the area. Device. The most significant feature of the present invention is that the same package surface is imaged twice or more for the cargo flowing through the flow path in a distribution system or the like, and in the processing of the second and subsequent captured images, the analysis result of the previous imaging is obtained. The point is to use it.

In the past, when attempting to recognize information on the surface of a package in a physical distribution system, it was common sense to take an image once, capture the information, and then complete the final recognition of that image. However, this method requires a large amount of processing in a short time before the next package arrives, as described above. If the analysis cannot be completed before the next package arrives, the image It is necessary to perform analysis after transferring to the storage area or taking measures to share it. However, transferring a large amount of image data takes time in itself and it is not easy to share image data.

Therefore, for each night of imaging, a rough process is performed so that it can be processed in the time until the next package arrives, and the same package surface is again imaged further downstream, and this time, the processing result is used in advance. The present invention has been made based on the idea of performing recognition processing on information narrowed down by processing. According to this, since each image processing means only needs to perform a limited process, the amount of each process can be reduced.

For example, first, image the luggage surface once, and then roughly grasp where the information (such as characters (including numbers) or figures) to be recognized is drawn on the luggage surface. In the image information, the analysis for the recognition is performed only for the position where the character or the graphic to be recognized is determined to be drawn using the position information. In the first image processing means, a publicly-known image recognition technique may be appropriately used as a method for extracting a position where a character or a figure is described on the imaged surface of the package. In the second image processing means, a known character / graphic recognition technology may be appropriately used as a method for recognizing a character / graphic described at the position. According to the present invention, processing using a plurality of processing means can be performed without transferring a large amount of data or sharing the data with a plurality of CPUs. Since only limited information such as position information is transmitted from the first image processing means to the second image processing means, much less information is transmitted than when the captured image information itself is transmitted. Transmission is sufficient and delay problems are less likely to occur. As described above, data obtained by re-imaging can be used instead of data transfer, etc. in a system in which an object moves on a flow path, such as a distribution system, on a flow path such as a belt conveyor. Since the speed and attitude of a load flowing through a package usually does not change, if similar imaging means are provided upstream and downstream, almost the same image data can be obtained by adjusting the timing of capturing the load. This is because there is a characteristic that it can be obtained. The number of imaging means and image processing means is not limited to two, and may be three or more. Image data may be read for each image processing unit. The transmission of the position information from the first image processing unit to the second image processing unit may be performed before or after the acquisition of the image information by the second imaging unit. In addition, the communication does not need to be performed directly, and it is sufficient that the communication is finally secured. The invention described in Claim 2 is

A first luggage detection sensor for generating a signal to be a trigger for imaging by the first imaging means;

A second luggage detecting sensor for generating a signal to be a trigger for imaging by the second imaging means;

2. The identification device according to claim 1, comprising: In order for the first imaging means and the second imaging means to similarly image the baggage surface of the same luggage, the luggage must be imaged when the luggage comes to the same state for each imaging means. It is desirable to carry out. In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a baggage detection sensor corresponding to each imaging unit, and to perform imaging at the same timing after detecting that a baggage has flowed. The invention described in claim 3 is:

An identification device according to claim 1 or claim 2,

The physical distribution system includes a physical information processing device that performs information processing for physical distribution control using information from the identification device. By using the identification device, various kinds of information of the target luggage can be obtained. By using this information in an information processing device such as a computer that supervises distribution control, advanced information such as branching and distribution of luggage can be obtained. A logistics system with functions can be realized. The invention described in Claim 4 is

Imaging the luggage surface at the first point of the distribution conveyor and capturing it as an image

Performing image recognition on the image data of the baggage surface captured at the first point to determine an area in which information to be recognized is described; at a second point downstream from the first point A step in which the same luggage surface as that taken at the first point is again taken and taken as image data,

A step of performing a process of recognizing luggage surface information on the determined area with respect to the image data of the luggage surface captured at the second point.

This is a method for identifying the baggage surface information in a physical distribution conveyor. This invention is an invention of a method for identifying packages in a distribution system based on the same idea as the invention described in claim 1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

1 (a) and 1 (b) are schematic perspective views showing a system configuration and an operation process of a character identification device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the baggage subject to the same character identification.

FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) are flow charts showing operation procedures of the first and second image reading devices.

FIGS. 4 (a) to (d) are explanatory diagrams showing the processing procedure of the first image processing unit.

FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) are explanatory diagrams showing a processing procedure subsequent to FIG. FIGS. 6 (a;) and (b) are explanatory diagrams showing the processing procedure of the second image processing unit. Explanation of reference numerals

1 Belt conveyor (flow path)

W luggage

2, 3 image reading device

4, 5 CCD camera (Imaging means)

6, 7 Image processing unit (image processing means)

1 0 Connection cable (information transmission means)

8, 9 Luggage detection sensor 1 2 Higher-level equipment (distribution information processing device) Best mode for carrying out the invention

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an apparatus configuration in a case where the present invention is applied to a character reading apparatus printed or affixed to a side surface of a package flowing on a conveyor line. Reference numeral 1 denotes a belt conveyor on which goods are sequentially circulated. Figures (a) and (b) show temporal changes.

The baggage W is, for example, a corrugated pole in which the corresponding product is packed. Generally, on the side of the cardboard for packing, as shown in Fig. 2, the trade name, product name, product character, etc. of the goods packed inside (area A), the product number (area B), The description of the contents (Area C), the date of manufacture (Area D), the sticking of the bar code (Area E), etc. are placed where appropriate.

In the present embodiment, of the above image information, only the character (number) information of the areas B, C, and D is extracted and character recognition is performed, and the information recognized for these areas is converted to the corresponding package W This shows a case where the information is acquired as identification information.

As shown in FIG. 1, a first image reading device 2 and a second image reading device 3 are arranged on a side surface of the conveyor 1 at a predetermined distance downstream of the reading device 2. I have.

The first image reading device 2 includes a CCD camera 4 as a first imaging unit, an image processing unit 6 as a first image processing unit connected thereto, and a sensor 8 as a first baggage detecting unit. Inclusive. Regarding the second image reading device 3, It includes a CCD camera 5 as a second imaging means, an image processing unit 7 as a second image processing means connected thereto, and a sensor 9 as a second baggage detecting means. The two image processing units 6 and 7 are connected by a communication cable 10 as information transmission means. The second image processing unit 7 transmits the processed data to the upper device 12. The upper device 12 is a logistics information processing device that is configured by a computer device and controls the logistics of the logistics system including the conveyor 1. As a result, it is possible to control the sorting, branching, merging, and the like of packages at a position downstream of the conveyor 1.

In addition to the above, a screen (not shown) is fixedly installed as a background at a position opposite to the image reading devices 2 and 3 with the conveyor 1 interposed therebetween. Next, the read processing procedure in the above configuration will be described using a flowchart.

First, FIG. 3 (a) shows a processing procedure of the first image reading device 2. The luggage detecting sensor 8 constantly monitors the passage of the luggage W, and the luggage sensor 8 emits a signal when the luggage passes through the sensitive range of the sensor 8. Using this signal as a trigger (SA301), the CCD camera 4 captures an image of the side of the package W (SA302, Fig. 1 (a)). This image is captured by the image processing unit 6 (SA303), image processing is performed to extract and specify an area for character recognition (SA304), and area position data for the specified area is stored in the second image. Transfer to processing unit 7 (SA305) o

FIG. 3 (b) shows a processing procedure of the second image reading device 3. The second image reading device monitors whether or not the area position data has been received from the image processing unit 6 of the first image reading device (SB301). It is loaded into the control unit 7 (SB302). During this time, the baggage W is flowing on the conveyor 1, so the second image reading device constantly monitors the passage of the baggage W by the baggage detection sensor 9 (SB303). Then, upon detecting the passage of the same package W, the CCD camera 5 takes an image of the package W (SB304, FIG. 1 (b)), and then the image processing unit 7 sets the block designated by the position data. Only the image is fetched (SB305), and a recognition process for recognizing a character as image information in the fetched block as text is performed (SB305). As a result, information for identifying the package is obtained, and the obtained processing result data is transferred to the upper-level device 12 (SB307). That is, in the present invention, when the package flows on the conveyor, the same surface of the package is imaged twice or more by different imaging means. First, an image is taken by the first imaging means ((a) in the figure). Then, determine the area that needs to be recognized. Before or after this, an image is taken again by the second image pickup means (FIG. 9 (b)), and detailed recognition of only a necessary area is performed on this image using the determined area information. Next, the processing contents of the first image processing unit 6 are shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. As shown in Fig. 4 (a), assuming that the total number of pixels for one screen of the actually captured image is 640 dots in the horizontal direction and 480 dots in the vertical direction, ), A reduced image of 640 11 X 48 O Zn at a predetermined thinning rate n. In this processing, the first image processing unit 6 only needs to extract a specific area where characters in the image are drawn as a group or a block and extract only its outline. Processing speed Because

Next, as shown in FIG. 2C, the image processing unit 6 extracts the outline of the entire portion where the characters and the like of the thinned image are drawn, and then, as shown in FIG. Performs valuation. In the figure, the black and white is the same, but it is actually a black and white inverted image. In this state, as shown by the dashed line in Fig. 5 (a), the area where the characters are described is grouped, the blocks are calculated, and the coordinates are calculated. Specified as This process detects the corner coordinates Pl, P2, P3, and P4 of the rectangular area and reads the area enclosed by the coordinates, as shown partially enlarged in the figure. It is a taking area.

As described above, as shown in FIG. 5 (b), the image processing area in the second image processing unit 7 is determined, and this area position information is transmitted to the second image processing unit 7 via the connection cable 10. Transfer to. Next, when the second baggage detection sensor 9 detects the passing baggage W after a predetermined time delay, the second CCD camera 5 takes an image of the same baggage W, and the image content is converted to the second image processing unit. It is taken in 7.

Based on the area position information obtained in the first image processing unit 6 on the second image processing unit 7 side, as shown in FIG. 6 (a), only the image data in each specified area is read and the image is read. Execute the process.

As shown in FIG. 6 (b), the contents of this processing are as follows: contours are extracted, binarized, and connected components are extracted from image data in a specified area in the read data. Then, when the aspect ratio of the contour of the obtained data is constant, it is determined to be an alphanumeric character, and is recognized as character data by a pattern matching method or another character recognition method. The character data is transferred to the host device 12. In this embodiment, a system for recognizing and identifying only characters is exemplified, so that areas B, C, and D, that is, the product number, NET, and date of manufacture are recognized as characters, and areas A and E are used. If it is determined that the recognized image in the outline is not a character, the recognition operation in the outline is stopped. In other words, of the image data, only the product number, NET, and date of manufacture are transferred to the host device 12 as information forming a pair with the corresponding package W. By collecting the above data, for example, a branch line etc. can be provided downstream of the belt conveyor 1 to automatically sort the package according to the product number, NET, date of manufacture, etc. described on the package surface. I can do it.

For other uses, for example, when numerical data is used in a product management system, the product number of the package W and the date of manufacture are automatically entered in a spreadsheet system or the like built into the host computer. Such a system can be constructed. In this embodiment, the case where only alphanumeric characters are selectively read has been described, but it is needless to say that recognition of various languages and recognition of figures and the like are also possible. Industrial applicability

As is clear from the above description, according to the cargo identification device in the physical distribution system according to the present invention, when identifying the cargo in the compare system or the like, the moving cargo is not stopped temporarily, but simply and quickly. Recognition of letters on luggage Can perform intelligence processing

Claims

The scope of the claims

1. A device for identifying baggage surface information of a baggage moving along a flow path, wherein first imaging means arranged on the flow path upstream side;

Second imaging means arranged on the downstream side,

First image processing means for processing image data of the baggage surface captured from the first imaging means;

The first imaging means captures an image of the baggage surface and captures it as image data, and the first image processing means describes information to be recognized for the image data of the baggage surface captured from the first imaging means. The determined area is determined, and the position information of the area is transmitted to the second image processing means via the information transmitting means, and the second imaging means is the same as the first imaging means. The luggage surface is imaged again and captured as image data.

The second image processing means, based on the image data of the luggage surface taken from the second imaging means, performs recognition processing of the luggage surface information based on the position information of the area, Identification device. . A first luggage detection sensor for generating a signal to be a trigger for imaging by the first imaging means;

A second signal for generating a signal to be a trigger for imaging by the second imaging means; A second luggage detection sensor and

2. The identification device according to claim 1, comprising:

3. The identification device described in Claim 1 or Claim 2,

A physical distribution system comprising a physical distribution information processing device that performs information processing for physical distribution control using information from the identification device.

4. Image the package surface at the first point of the logistics conveyor and import it as image data;

Performing image recognition based on the image data of the baggage surface captured at the first point to determine an area in which information to be recognized is described; at a second point downstream of the first point Re-imaging the same baggage surface that was imaged at the first point and capturing the image data as image data; and comparing the image data of the baggage surface captured at the second point with respect to the determined area. Steps for performing information recognition processing

A method for identifying luggage surface information in a logistics conveyor, comprising: