title: A Character Segmentation Proposal for High-Speed Visual Monitoring of Expiration Codes on Beverage Cans.
abstract: Expiration date labels are ubiquitous in the food industry. With the passage of time, almost any food becomes unhealthy, even when well preserved. The expiration date is estimated based on the type and manufacture/packaging time of that particular food unit. This date is then printed on the container so it is available to the end user at the time of consumption. MONICOD (MONItoring of CODes); an industrial validator of expiration codes; allows the expiration code printed on a drink can to be read. This verification occurs immediately after printing. MONICOD faces difficulties due to the high printing rate (35 cans per second) and problematic lighting caused by the metallic surface on which the code is printed. This article describes a solution that allows MONICOD to extract shapes and presents quantitative results for the speed and quality.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cybernetics, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas, Spain. jcarlos@ciber.ulpgc.es.
authors.forename: José C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cybernetics, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas, Spain. aquesada@dis.ulpgc.es.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quesada-Arencibia
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cybernetics, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas, Spain. rmorenoj@dis.ulpgc.es.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moreno-Díaz
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cybernetics, Campus de Tafira, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas, Spain. rgarcia@dis.ulpgc.es.
authors.forename: Carmelo R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: García
keywords: OCR (Optical Character Recognition); character segmentation; image processing; industrial inspection; pattern recognition; tracking; very high-speed computing