A robust braille recognition system

Braille is the most effective means of written communication between visually-impaired and sighted people. This paper describes a new system that recognizes Braille characters in scanned Braille document pages. Unlike most other approaches, an inexpensive flatbed scanner is used and the system requires minimal interaction with the user. A unique feature of this system is the use of context at different levels (from the pre-processing of the image through to the post-processing of the recognition results) to enhance robustness and, consequently, recognition results. Braille dots composing characters are identified on both single and double-sided documents of average quality with over 99% accuracy, while Braille characters are also correctly recognised in over 99% of documents of average quality (in both single and double-sided documents)

Use of colour for hand-filled form analysis and recognition

Colour information in form analysis is currently under utilised. As technology has advanced and computing costs have reduced, the processing of forms in colour has now become practicable. This paper describes a novel colour-based approach to the extraction of filled data from colour form images. Images are first quantised to reduce the colour complexity and data is extracted by examining the colour characteristics of the images. The improved performance of the proposed method has been verified by comparing the processing time, recognition rate, extraction precision and recall rate to that of an equivalent black and white system

Semantics-Based Content Extraction in Typewritten Historical Documents

This paper presents a flexible approach to extracting content from scanned historical documents using semantic information. The final electronic document is the result of a "digital historical document lifecycle" process, where the expert knowledge of the historian/archivist user is incorporated at different stages. Results show that such a conversion strategy aided by (expert) user-specified semantic information and which enables the processing of individual parts of the document in a specialised way, produces superior (in a variety of significant ways) results than document analysis and understanding techniques devised for contemporary documents

Shape and Texture Combined Face Recognition for Detection of Forged ID Documents

This paper proposes a face recognition system that can be used to effectively match a face image scanned from an identity (ID) doc-ument against the face image stored in the biometric chip of such a document. The purpose of this specific face recognition algorithm is to aid the automatic detection of forged ID documents where the photography printed on the document’s surface has been altered or replaced. The proposed algorithm uses a novel combination of texture and shape features together with sub-space representation techniques. In addition, the robustness of the proposed algorithm when dealing with more general face recognition tasks has been proven with the Good, the Bad & the Ugly (GBU) dataset, one of the most challenging datasets containing frontal faces. The proposed algorithm has been complement-ed with a novel method that adopts two operating points to enhance the reliability of the algorithm’s final verification decision.Final Accepted Versio

Sustainable Waste Sorter

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThe purpose of this project is to help people eliminate the confusion on whether they should throw their trash away or dispose of it in a recycling bin. The sustainable waste sorter is an informative device that tells the user where to place their trash. Our customer and the origin of the idea came from an organization called Roche Diagnostics Operations. Roche Diagnostics Operations is a multinational healthcare organization, the Indianapolis location focuses more on creating and developing their diabetic test strips. The device is created of four main components which include a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, a camera module, an LCD screen, and a casing/mount that holds all of these components together. All of these components are compatible with the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. The software was programmed in Python and the database in MySQL. During the development of the device, the most challenging task was learning how to develop in the new language, Python. Once the device reached a stable state it was piloted at Roche Diagnostics Operations. The purpose of the first of three pilot sessions was to verify that the device worked in the environment and that the items entered in the database were recognized; as a result, the device passed that test. The second pilot session had the same purpose as the first pilot session but with more items in the database. The device received more interaction during the second pilot session, though the team decided to schedule a third pilot session once all the items were entered into the database and a revamped user interface was completed. The team entered about 800 entries into the database and created a new and interactive user interface for the device. The third pilot session was a success; the items that were scanned by testers were recognized and the new user interface was a success as well. Overall, the sustainable waste sorter project was successful and educational. We, as students, took all of our fundamental learnings from our previous courses and applied them to this project. This allowed us to enhance our problem solving and project management skills. As people use the device, we hope that it educates them on how to properly recycle therefore improving the environmental state of our planet.Computer Engineering Technolog