Decoding machine-readable optical codes with aesthetic component

摘要

Techniques are provided for decoding machine-readable optical codes that have an aesthetic component that is integrated into the codes themselves. In this manner, the machine-readable optical codes can be designed to be aesthetically pleasing and/or can convey information to human viewers, and can even be disguised so that they do not appear to be machine-readable optical codes at all. Such information can be (but need not be) distinct from the information encoded for reading by a machine, even when the information is integrated into the code itself. The techniques described herein can be applied to any type of machine-readable optical code.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting a fiducial containing a machine-readable optical code, comprising:
at an image capture device, capturing an input image; at a processor, generating a binary image from the input image; at the processor, identifying connected components within the binary image; at the processor, identifying quadrilaterals within the connected components; at the processor, filtering the identified quadrilaterals to generate a set of at least one quadrilateral; and at an output device, outputting the set of at least one quadrilateral as a set of at least one detected fiducial containing a machine-readable optical code; wherein generating a binary image from the input image comprises: determining a local scale for each of a plurality of locations within the image, to generate a locally averaged image; and at each location, comparing the locally averaged image to a threshold.