Locating 1-D Bar Codes in DCT-Domain

Today\u27s digital cameras and camera phones allow users to capture bar codes, which are used to uniquely identify consumer product. In this paper a fast algorithm is proposed that locates a 1-D bar code in the DCT-domain of a bar code image taken by a digital camera. The algorithm uses the DCT-transform properties to distinguish bar code from other texture, morphological operations to smooth the detected bar code area and the features of the extracted area lo detect position and orientation of a bar code in the imag

Eyes-Free Vision-Based Scanning of Aligned Barcodes and Information Extraction from Aligned Nutrition Tables

Visually impaired (VI) individuals struggle with grocery shopping and have to rely on either friends, family or grocery store associates for shopping. ShopMobile 2 is a proof-of-concept system that allows VI shoppers to shop independently in a grocery store using only their smartphone. Unlike other assistive shopping systems that use dedicated hardware, this system is a software only solution that relies on fast computer vision algorithms. It consists of three modules - an eyes free barcode scanner, an optical character recognition (OCR) module, and a tele-assistance module. The eyes-free barcode scanner allows VI shoppers to locate and retrieve products by scanning barcodes on shelves and on products. The OCR module allows shoppers to read nutrition facts on products and the tele-assistance module allows them to obtain help from sighted individuals at remote locations. This dissertation discusses, provides implementations of, and presents laboratory and real-world experiments related to all three modules