Recognition of identifiers from shipping container images using fuzzy binarization and enhanced fuzzy neural network

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel recognition algorithm for container identifiers that effectively overcomes these difficulties and recognizes identifiers from container images captured in various environments. The proposed algorithm, first, extracts the area containing only the identifiers from container images by using CANNY masking and bi-directional histogram method. The extracted identifier area is binarized by the fuzzy binarization method newly proposed in this paper. Then a contour tracking method is applied to the binarized area in order to extract the container identifiers, which are the target for recognition. This paper also proposes an enhanced fuzzy RBF network that adapts the enhanced fuzzy ART network for the middle layer. This network is applied to the recognition of individual codes. The results of experiment for performance evaluation on the real container images showed that the proposed algorithm performs better for extraction and recognition of container identifiers compared to conventional algorithms. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.