Vehicle identification number recognition using edge projection and PCA

The automation of production process is actively expanding for the purpose of the cost reduction and quality assurance. Among these, automatic tracking of the product along the whole process of the production is also important topic. Typically this isdone by adopting OCR technology. Conventional OCR technology operates well on the rather good quality of the image like asprinted characters on the paper. In industrial application, IDs are marked on the metal surface, and this cause the height differencebetween background material and character. Illumination systems that guarantee an image with good quality may be a solution, but itis rather difficult to design such an illumination system. This paper proposes an algorithm for the recognition of vehicle's IDcharacters using edge projection and PCA (Principal Component Analysis). Proposed algorithm robustly operates under illuminationchange using the same parameters. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.