Object recognition system

TL;DR: In this article, an object recognition system including a position sensor, an image sensor and a controller is provided, where the position sensor determines the position of an object, and the image sensor captures an image of the object.

Abstract: An object recognition system including a position sensor, an image sensor and a controller is provided. The position sensor determines the position of an object, and the image sensor captures an image of the object. The controller sets a processing area within the image captured by the image sensor based on the position of the object determined by the position sensor and a predetermined size for the object to be recognized. The controller extracts horizontal edges from the processing area, and identifies horizontal edges belonging to the outline of the object from the extracted edges. Thus, the object can be recognized based on the horizontal edges only. Similarly, the controller can extract vertical edges from the processing area and identify vertical edges belonging to the outline of the object. Preferably, the controller selects upper, lower, left, and right horizontal and vertical candidate ends of the object from the identified horizontal and vertical edges respectively, from which upper, lower, left, and right ends of the object are determined. If either one or both of the left and right horizontal candidate ends cannot be selected, candidate ends can be estimated based on the position of the object recognized in a previous recognition cycle, and the estimated candidate ends can be used in lieu of the candidate ends selected from the horizontal edges.