US 6,981,644 B2
Apparatus and method for recognizing code
Cheol Ho Cheong, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Nam Kyu Lee, Goyang (Korea, Republic of); and Tack Don Han, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Assigned to Colorzip Media, Inc., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Appl. No. 10/492,305
PCT Filed May 13, 2002, PCT No. PCT/KR02/00886
§ 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Apr. 12, 2004,
PCT Pub. No. WO03/041014, PCT Pub. Date May 15, 2003.
Claims priority of application No. 2001-68378 (KR), filed on Nov. 03, 2001.
Prior Publication US 2005/0001033 A1, Jan. 06, 2005
Int. Cl. G06K 7/10 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 235—462.04 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for recognizing a code, the apparatus comprising:
an image-acquiring portion for acquiring a raw image in which a code image is contained;
a color-converting portion for correcting colors or shades recognized in the raw image, using an environmental variable which is set to discriminate colors or shades of the raw image in consideration of an environment in which the raw image is input, converting the corrected colors or shades into a plurality of standard colors or standard shades used to generate the code image, and generating a standard image represented by the standard colors or standard shades;
a binary-coding converting portion for dividing the colors or shades of the raw image into two colors according to a predetermined reference value and generating a binary-coded image;
an image-processing portion for extracting an area excluding a code image area from the binary-coded image, setting a color of the area corresponding to the extracted area in the standard image as a background color, thereby discriminating the code image area from other areas, extracting a plurality of cells included in the code image area, and recognizing the standard color or standard shade represented in each of the cells; and
a code-converting portion for extracting a corresponding character, number, or symbol from the color or shade recognized in each of the cells of the code image according to a relationship between a character, number, or symbol and a corresponding color or shade and generating code data.