Directional edge based algorithm for nonideal scanned express form barcode location

With the fast development of material flow industry and the widespread rising of network shopping in China, people´s requirement for express information to check and track their packages becomes increasingly pressing. This paper focuses on the barcode locating for nonideal scanned express forms, and proposes a faster robust algorithm based on directional edge. First, rough location is achieved through dividing an express form image into blocks and searching the one within barcode area according to the directional feature value derived from the difference between horizontal and vertical edge points in each block. Then we finish accurate location by extending the found block to the strip code area edges. For the images with rotation, we combine directional edge feature and exhaustive test method to estimate rotation angle and compensate it. The experimental results on actual express form image gallery show that the proposed method is fast, accurate, robust and has great application value.