An application of K-means clustering for improving video text detection

Abstract

In the present work, we explore an extensive applications of Gabor filter and K-means clustering algorithm in detection of text in an unconstrained complex background and regular images. The system is a comprehensive of four stages: In the first stage, combination of wavelet transforms and Gabor filter is applied to extract sharpened edges and textural features of a given input image. In the second stage, the resultant Gabor output image is grouped into three clusters to classify the background, foreground and the true text pixels using K-means clustering algorithm. In the third stage of the system, morphological operations are performed to obtain connected components, then after a concept of linked list approach is in turn used to build a true text line sequence. In the final stage, wavelet entropy is imposed on an each connected component sequence, in order to determine the true text region of an input image. Experiments are conducted on 101 video images and on standard ICDAR 2003 database. The proposed method is evaluated by testing the 101 video images as well with the ICDAR 2003 database. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to detect a text of different size, complex background and contrast. Withal, the system performance outreaches the existing method in terms of detection accuracy. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.