Patent ID: 7903876
Filing Date: 2011-03-08
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for removing or reducing the distortion in an image comprising pixels, the method comprising: locating a set of letter regions in the image; selecting a point for each letter region to form a set of points corresponding to the set of letter regions; fitting a minimum area rectangle to the set of points; grouping as a first set of letter regions those letter regions that are intersected by or are within a first threshold distance of a first boundary of the minimum area rectangle and that are on a boundary of a convex hull of the set of letter regions; grouping as a second set of letter regions those letter regions that are intersected by or are within a second threshold distance of a second boundary of the minimum area rectangle and that are on the boundary of the convex hull of the set of letter regions; using a characteristic of at least one of the first and second sets of letter regions to reduce distortion in at least a portion of the image; and responsive to a spatial distribution of letter regions of at least one of the first set of letter regions and the second set of letter regions not exceeding a distribution threshold value and responsive to the first set of letter regions and the second set of letter regions not intersecting: forming a reduced set of letter regions by removing from the set of letter regions those letter regions corresponding to the set of letter regions selected from the first and the second sets of letter regions that has a spatial distribution that does not exceed the distribution threshold value; fitting a subsequent minimum area rectangle to a reduced set of points corresponding to the reduced set of letter regions; and for each of the first and second sets of letter regions that did not exceed the distribution threshold value, identifying a replacement set of letter regions that are intersected by or are within its respective threshold distance of a boundary of the subsequent minimum area rectangle and that are on a boundary of a convex hull of the reduced set of letter regions.