String extraction from color airline coupon image using statistical approach

A novel technique is presented in this paper to extract strings in color images of both business settlement plan (BSP) and non-BSP airline coupon. The essential concept is to remove non-text pixels from complex coupon images, rather than extract strings directly. First we transfer color images from RGB to HSV space, which is approximate uniformed, and then remove the black component of images using the property of HSV space. A statistical approach called principal components analysis (PCA) is applied to extract strings by removing the background decorative pattern based on priori environment. Finally, a method to validate and improve performance is present.