Abstract:
A reading machine includes an image input device including a lens and a polarizer disposed over the lens, a flash and a second polarizer disposed over the flash. The image input device also includes a computing device coupled to the image input device for capturing images, the computing device, including a processor to execute instructions and a computer program product residing on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing the processor to process the captured images to recognize features in the captured images.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    Reading machines use optical character recognition (OCR) and text-to-speech (TTS) i.e., speech synthesis software to read aloud and thus convey printed matter to visually and developmentally impaired individuals. Reading machines read text from books, journals, and so forth. 
         [0002]    Reading machines can use commercial off-the-shelf flat-bed scanners, a personal computer and optical character recognition (OCR) software. The computer processes an image with the OCR software and produces a text file. The text file is fed to text-to-speech synthesis software to provide electrical signals that are fed to audio output devices to render speech and thus read any recognized text aloud to the user. 
         [0003]    One manner in which a reading machine can capture an image is through an imaging device that is attached to the reading machine. One such use is to capture images of a scene to convey content of the scene to a user. A scene can represent contents of an image that is being read. A scene can be a memo or page of a book, or it can be a door in a hallway of an office building. The type of real-world contexts to “read” may include visual elements that are words, symbols or pictures, colors and so forth. 
         [0004]    In addition to processing the image to recognize text, other recognition processes can include object recognition, such as recognizing faces, expressions on faces and so forth. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    In applications of reading machines with use of a flash to increase the light available to capture the image, there can be glare from glossy surfaces of a document or from, e.g., eyeglasses for facial recognition when a flash is used. Also there may be natural glare under strong lighting conditions all of which can interfere with recognition processing. 
         [0006]    According to an aspect of the present invention, an image input device includes a lens, a flash window, a polarizer adhesively affixed over the lens and a polarizer adhesively affixed over the flash window, with the polarizer over the flash window having a linear polarization that is orthogonal to a linear polarization of the polarizer over the lens. 
         [0007]    The following are embodiments within the scope of the invention. 
         [0008]    The image input device is a camera. The polarizers are each a layer of a polarizer film having an adhesive on a surface thereof that attaches to the lens and flash window, and with the layers have a perimeter that is configured to orientate and align the polarizers in a correct polarization relative to each other when attached to the image input device. 
         [0009]    According to another aspect of the present invention, a reading machine includes an image input device including a lens and a polarizer disposed over the lens, a flash and a second polarizer disposed over the flash. The image input device also includes a computing device coupled to the image input device for capturing images, the computing device, including a processor to execute instructions and a computer program product residing on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing the processor to process the captured images to recognize features in the captured images. 
         [0010]    The following are embodiments within the scope of the invention. 
         [0011]    The reading machine has the computer program product further including instructions to recognize text in the captured images and produce text and convert the recognized text to speech using text-to-speech software. The polarizers are adhesively affixed to the lens and flash window of the image input device. The image input device is a camera that produces images on which relevant text is recognized by applying the optical character recognition. The image input device is coupled to the computing device through a wireless communication link, in which the image input device wireless transmits image data to the processor. The image input device is coupled to the computing device, in which the image input device transmits image data to the processor over a physical interface. The reading machine further includes an audio output device and audio processing circuitry to receive an output from the text-to-speech synthesis and to generate an auditory signal that is rendered through the audio output device. The polarizer is a linear polarizer. The polarizers are linear polarizers and wherein the linear polarizers configured on the image input device in a manner that light from the flash has a polarization that is in perpendicular to the polarization of light that is captured by the lens. The polarizer includes a layer of a polarizer film, the layer having a surface with an optically transparent adhesive layer to allow the polarizer to be affixed to the lens. The polarizers each comprise a layer of a polarizer film, the layer having a surface with an optically transparent adhesive layer to allow the polarizers to be affixed to the lens and to the flash. The polarizers transmit only light having a first linear polarization and absorb light that has other than the first linear polarization. The polarizers are affixed to the image input device by a snap mechanism. The reading machine includes a pouch that houses the input device and wherein the polarizers are carried in a window of the pouch. The polarizers transmit only light having a first linear polarization, absorb light having other than the first linear polarization and improves the quality of the image captured by the image input device to increase the accuracy of the optical character recognition performed by the processor. 
         [0012]    According to another aspect of the present invention, a polarizer includes a layer of a polarizer film, the layer having a first surface having an optically transparent adhesive layer thereon to allow the polarizer to be affixed to an optical element of a device. 
         [0013]    The following are embodiments within the scope of the invention. 
         [0014]    The polarizer includes a pair of protective layers over the polarizer film. The polarizer film is comprised of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) plastic with an iodine dopant. The polarizer is a linear polarizer to transmit light having linear polarization and absorb light having other than the linear polarization. The polarizer includes a protective, disposable layer disposed over a front surface of the polarizer film, a protective, disposable layer disposed over a back surface of the polarizer film, with the back surface have an optically transparent adhesive thereon, and with the polarizer film and the protective, disposable layer disposed over a front surface of the polarizer film being perforated to allow the polarizer film and the protective, disposable layer disposed over a front surface of the polarizer film to be removed from the disposable layer disposed over the back surface of the polarizer film. The perforations are disposed to key a lens polarizer and a flash window polarizer to be configured for a particular image input device. 
         [0015]    The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a portable reading machine with attached, portable imaging device. 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram. 
           [0018]      FIGS. 3A and 3B  are diagrams depicting a polarizer kit. 
           [0019]      FIGS. 4-6  are diagrams depicting an image input device with polarizers. 
           [0020]      FIG. 7  is a diagram depicting an image input device with keyed polarizers. 
           [0021]      FIG. 8  is a plan view of an alternative polarizer kit. 
           [0022]      FIG. 9  is a flow chart. 
           [0023]      FIGS. 10A and 10B  show alternative attachment techniques for the polarizers. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0024]    Referring to  FIG. 1  a configuration of a portable reading machine  10  is shown. The portable reading machine  10  includes a portable computing device  12  and image input device  26 , as shown. The image input device  26  can be integrated into the reading machine  10 . Alternatively, the portable reading machine  10  can be a camera with enhanced computing capability (that implements the functions of the portable computing device  12 ). The portable reading machine  10  can also be implemented as a mobile telephone, e.g., so-called smart phones such as the Nokia N95 (Nokia, Inc.) having an image input device and enhanced computing resources. Such a smart phone can be modified to have the computing resources execute application software that implements reading machine functionality (discussed below). 
         [0025]    The image input device, e.g. a still camera, a video camera, portable scanner, etc, built-in camera on a cell phone, collects image data that is processed by portable computing device  12 . The portable reading machine  10  has the image input device  26  coupled to the computing device  12  using a cable (e.g. USB, Firewire) or by wireless technology (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, wireless USB) and so forth. An example is a consumer digital camera coupled to a pocket PC or a handheld Windows or Linux PC, a personal digital assistant and so forth which executes applications to implement reading machine functionality. 
         [0026]    In general, as in  FIG. 1 , the portable computing device  12  of the portable reading machine  10  includes at least one processor device  14 , memory  16  for executing computer programs and persistent storage  18 , e.g., magnetic or optical storage, PROM, flash Prom or ROM and so forth that persistently stores computer programs and other data used by the reading machine  10 . In addition, the portable reading machine  10  includes input and output interfaces  20  to interface the processing device to the outside world, such as to the image input device and user controls. 
         [0027]    The portable reading machine  10  can include a network interface, device (not shown) to interface the reading machine to a network (including the Internet), e.g., to upload programs and/or data used in the reading machine  10 . As a mobile phone, the phone can connect to the Internet, via the wireless carrier or to a local network via WiFI and Bluetooth. The network connectivity is useful for cooperative processing, in which the mobile device captures an image pre-processes the image to produce smaller bitmaps that could be sent to a more powerful computer for recognition processing. The recognized text (or object) information could be sent back to the mobile device. 
         [0028]    The portable reading machine  10  includes an audio output device  24  to convey synthesized speech to the user from operation of the reading machine  10 . The camera and audio devices can be coupled to the computing device using a cable (e.g. USB, Firewire) or using wireless technology (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) etc. The portable reading machine  10  may have two cameras, or video input devices  26 , one for high resolution and the other for lower resolution images. The lower resolution camera may be support lower resolution scanning for capturing gestures or directed reading, whereas the higher resolution one can be used to capture images that are process to recognize text and which text is used to synthesize speech. 
         [0029]    The portable reading machine can be used with a pair of “eyeglasses”  28 . The eyeglasses  28  may be integrated with one or more cameras  28   a  and coupled to the portable reading machine, via a communications link. The eyeglasses  26  provide flexibility to the user. The communications link  28   b  between the eyeglasses and the portable reading machine can be wireless or via a cable, as discussed above. The reading glasses  28  can have integrated speakers or earphones  28   c  to allow the user to hear the audio output of the portable reading machine. 
         [0030]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , elementary functions executed on the reading machine  10  are shown. Residing in storage  18  and executed in memory  16  under control of the processor  14  are an operating system  32 , optical character recognition software  34  (or object recognition software), text-to-speech synthesis software  36  and a reading machine application  38  that accesses these software modules. The reading machine application  38  may include other more advanced functions and operate under different modes of operation as desired. 
         [0031]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a polarizer kit  40  is shown. The polarizer kit is configured to be operable with the image input devices, especially if those devices are used, where varying lighting conditions can cause glare and other optical interference that can diminish the quality of the image and thus the effectiveness of OCR operation. For example, when the flash is used to image paper, often the paper has a glossy enough surface to produce glare that obliterates text. Magazines in particular have a very large amount of glare. The polarizers when installed on the image input device can improve performance in reading documents with a glossy finish. While the reader machine may continue to function normally without the polarizers, the reading quality may be sacrificed for glossy documents. While a user can tilt the camera at a slight angle from the text, to reduce the effects of glare, however this tilt would tend to also diminish the effectiveness of recognition processing, thus making it desirable to use the polarizers. 
         [0032]    The polarizer kit includes a sheet of polarizer film  44 , having a front protective layer  42  and a back protective layer  46 . The protective layers  42 ,  46  are intended to be removed after installation. That is, the back protective layer is intended to be removed to allow the polarizer to be affixed to the device, whereas, the front protective layer  42  is intended to be removed before the first use of the imaging device. The back protective layer  46  protects an adhesive layer or surface  45  that is provided on the back surface of the polarizer film  44  and which back surface attaches to a lens or a flash window of the video input device  12 , as will be discussed below. It is to be understood that the sheet of polarizer film  44  as well as the front protective layer  42  and the back protective layer  46  are relatively thin e.g., in a range of, e.g., 0.006″ to 0.03″ with 0.01″ being a typical thickness, other thicknesses possible. The thicknesses are exaggerated in  FIG. 2  for clarity in illustration. The protective layer&#39;s thickness is 0.003″ other thicknesses are possible. 
         [0033]    One such polarizer film is a linear polarizing Polyvinyl Alcohol-Iodine filter that polarizes in the visible light spectrum. The visible light transmission is 42% with an extinction transmittance of 1.7%. Optical density is measured using a beam of 100% linearly polarized light. Polarizers are available in 19″×50″×0.010″ sheets obtained from American Polarizers, Inc. 141 South Seventh Street Reading, Pa. 19602 USA. 
         [0034]    One example of an adhesive is a water-based acrylic pressure sensitive type adhesive. Such adhesives are high performance screen printable adhesives for instrument panels, touch panels, or appliques that can be selectively applied and provide substantially, permanent adhesion and high peel strength properties for the particular application. One such example is “NFi Printed Adhesive,” a water based acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive obtained from Nameplates For Industry, Inc. 213 Theodore Rice Blvd. New Bedford, Mass. 02745. Other adhesives and adhesive types can be used, provided that they are substantially transparent to optical wavelengths of interest, compatible with the polarizer and the material of the lens and flash window. 
         [0035]    Also disposed in the polarizer kit  40  are perforations  47  that define a flash polarizer  52  and lens polarizer  54  elements and permit the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  to be released from the protective layer  46 . 
         [0036]    The polarizers  52  and  54  converts incident un-polarized or mixed-polarization beam of electromagnetic waves (e.g., light) into an output beam with a single polarization state (e.g., a single linear polarization). The polarizer layer  44  can be comprised of a Polaroid™ film that is made from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) plastic with an iodine doping. Stretching of the sheet during manufacture aligns the PVA chains in one particular direction. Electrons supplied by the iodine dopant are able to travel along the chains, ensuring that light polarized parallel to the chains is absorbed by the sheet; whereas light polarized perpendicularly to the chains is transmitted. 
         [0037]    Thus, since each of the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  have a particular orientation it is important that the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  are applied in a manner that the polarizers have a polarization that are perpendicular to each other. 
         [0038]    Referring now to  FIGS. 4-6 , steps in the process of applying the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  to the flash  56  and lens  58  of the image input device  26  are illustrated. Since misalignment of the polarizers can degrade text recognition, it is desirable that the polarizers are installed by a sighted person or that they polarizers are manufactured on the device in order to avoid misalignment. 
         [0039]    In  FIG. 4 , the flash polarizer  52  is applied over flash window  56  and the front protective layer  42  on the flash polarizer  52  is subsequently removed. In  FIG. 5 , the lens polarizer  54  is applied over the lens  58  and the front protective layer  42  on the lens polarizer  54  is subsequently removed. Care is taken when removing the front protective layer  42  from both the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  so as not to detach the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  from the flash  56  and lens  58 , respectively. 
         [0040]    As an aid to assist users in applying the flash polarizer  52  and the lens polarizer  54  to an image input device, keyed polarizers, such as a keyed flash polarizer  52   a  and a keyed lens polarizer  54   a  are provided. The keyed flash polarizer  52   a  and the keyed lens polarizer  54   a  are each provided with a perimeter that conforms at least a portion of the perimeter of the flash polarizer  52   a  and the keyed lens polarizer  54   a  to corresponding portions of the lens and flash window of the image input device. In other words, to assist in application of the polarizers to the lens and flash, the polarizers are customized in size and shape for particular models of such image input devices. For instance, as shown in  FIG. 7 , the keyed flash polarizer  52   a  has a shape that allows a portion of the perimeter of the keyed flash polarizer  52   a  to follow a contour of the housing for the lens. Similarly, the keyed lens polarizer  54   a  has truncated upper and lower edges of the perimeter that could be used to assist the user in applying the keyed lens polarizer  54   a  to the lens such that those edges are parallel to a reference on the image input device, and so forth. 
         [0041]    A corresponding kit  40 ′ is shown in  FIG. 8  with the keyed flash polarizer  52   a  and the keyed lens polarizer  54   a.    
         [0042]    Referring to  FIG. 9 , operation of the reading machine  10  is shown. In one mode of operation, the reading machine application  38  in conjunction with the image input device  26  causes the reading machine  10  to capture  72  an image of a scene, e.g., document, outdoor environment, device, etc. The reading machine application  38  processes the image in the computing system  12 . Part of the processing of the image includes optical character recognition (OCR) processing  74  on the image. Processing of the image, results in an output  76  of text, e.g., as a text file or data structure. The text file or data structure is inputted  78  to a text-to-speech application  76  that converts the text to electrical signals that are rendered as speech. 
         [0043]    The polarizers once installed on the image input device with the protective layer removed, should be protected from scratches, dirt, and direct sunlight. Intense heat may affect the polarizer&#39;s adhesion to the lens or flash window. The polarizers should not be touched with fingers or any cutting material or come in contact with dirty surfaces. Ideally, the image input device is stored in a pouch with the reader to protect the surfaces. 
         [0044]    The polarizers may be cleaned using a soft piece of fabric, such as the type of fabric used to clean regular glasses. 
         [0045]    The polarizers for the camera flash output may require a replacement after approximately one year of use. The need for a replacement is indicated when the quality of the text recognition appears to be decreasing. Misalignment of the polarizers can also degrade text recognition. 
         [0046]    Other arrangements are possible. For instance the polarizers can be provided as individual units that fittings  58  which clip into receptacles  59  provided in the image input device  12 , as shown in  FIG. 10A . For instance, the polarizers can be carried by a plastic frame that has protrusions  58  that snap into receptacles  59  adjacent the flash and lens on an image input device. 
         [0047]    As shown in  FIG. 10B , a pouch assembly  60  that is used to carry the image input device can be have regions  62  that are comprised of the polarization film at the proper orientation over the flash  56  and over the lens  58 , when the image input device is fitted into the pouch  60   
         [0048]    A number of embodiments of the invention have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the polarizer is shown as a film having an adhesive surface. Alternatively, the polarizer can be built into the image input device or can be affixed to the lens and flash of the image input device via other mechanisms such as by use of a frame that hold the polarize and attaches to the lens and/or flash using a threaded, a bayonet or other mechanical affixation. In addition, other keying mechanisms could be used. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.