Patent ID: 11900664
Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 13:
14. A reading method, comprising:
extracting a contour from an input image;
calculating a surface area of a region surrounded with the contour;
extracting, based on the contour, an image having a prescribed shape from the input image when the surface area is not less than a threshold, the threshold being preset;
outputting, as a candidate image, the extracted image satisfying a second condition, the candidate image being a candidate of a portion of the input image in which a segment display is imaged, the segment display including a plurality of segment groups, each of the segment groups including a plurality of segments and displaying a number;
using the candidate image and a mask image to calculate a match ratio indicating a certainty of the segment display being included in the candidate image, the mask image being a binary image and including a plurality of mask regions for the segment groups;
determining that the candidate image is an image of a segment display in a case where the match ratio satisfies a first condition; and
reading a numerical value displayed by the segments groups from the candidate image determined to be an image of the segment display.