NAME

Image::Leptonica::Func::skew

VERSION

version 0.04

skew.c

skew.c

    Top-level deskew interfaces
        PIX       *pixDeskew()
        PIX       *pixFindSkewAndDeskew()
        PIX       *pixDeskewGeneral()

    Top-level angle-finding interface
        l_int32    pixFindSkew()

    Basic angle-finding functions
        l_int32    pixFindSkewSweep()
        l_int32    pixFindSkewSweepAndSearch()
        l_int32    pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScore()
        l_int32    pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScorePivot()

    Search over arbitrary range of angles in orthogonal directions
        l_int32    pixFindSkewOrthogonalRange()

    Differential square sum function for scoring
        l_int32    pixFindDifferentialSquareSum()

    Measures of variance of row sums
        l_int32    pixFindNormalizedSquareSum()


    ==============================================================
    Page skew detection

    Skew is determined by pixel profiles, which are computed
    as pixel sums along the raster line for each line in the
    image.  By vertically shearing the image by a given angle,
    the sums can be computed quickly along the raster lines
    rather than along lines at that angle.  The score is
    computed from these line sums by taking the square of
    the DIFFERENCE between adjacent line sums, summed over
    all lines.  The skew angle is then found as the angle
    that maximizes the score.  The actual computation for
    any sheared image is done in the function
    pixFindDifferentialSquareSum().

    The search for the angle that maximizes this score is
    most efficiently performed by first sweeping coarsely
    over angles, using a significantly reduced image (say, 4x
    reduction), to find the approximate maximum within a half
    degree or so, and then doing an interval-halving binary
    search at higher resolution to get the skew angle to
    within 1/20 degree or better.

    The differential signal is used (rather than just using
    that variance of line sums) because it rejects the
    background noise due to total number of black pixels,
    and has maximum contributions from the baselines and
    x-height lines of text when the textlines are aligned
    with the raster lines.  It also works well in multicolumn
    pages where the textlines do not line up across columns.

    The method is fast, accurate to within an angle (in radians)
    of approximately the inverse width in pixels of the image,
    and will work on a surprisingly small amount of text data
    (just a couple of text lines).  Consequently, it can
    also be used to find local skew if the skew were to vary
    significantly over the page.  Local skew determination
    is not very important except for locating lines of
    handwritten text that may be mixed with printed text.

FUNCTIONS

pixDeskew

PIX * pixDeskew ( PIX *pixs, l_int32 redsearch )

pixDeskew()

    Input:  pixs (any depth)
            redsearch (for binary search: reduction factor = 1, 2 or 4;
                       use 0 for default)
    Return: pixd (deskewed pix), or null on error

Notes:
    (1) This binarizes if necessary and finds the skew angle.  If the
        angle is large enough and there is sufficient confidence,
        it returns a deskewed image; otherwise, it returns a clone.

pixDeskewGeneral

PIX * pixDeskewGeneral ( PIX *pixs, l_int32 redsweep, l_float32 sweeprange, l_float32 sweepdelta, l_int32 redsearch, l_int32 thresh, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf )

pixDeskewGeneral()

    Input:  pixs  (any depth)
            redsweep  (for linear search: reduction factor = 1, 2 or 4;
                       use 0 for default)
            sweeprange (in degrees in each direction from 0;
                        use 0.0 for default)
            sweepdelta (in degrees; use 0.0 for default)
            redsearch  (for binary search: reduction factor = 1, 2 or 4;
                        use 0 for default;)
            thresh (for binarizing the image; use 0 for default)
            &angle   (<optional return> angle required to deskew,
                      in degrees; use NULL to skip)
            &conf    (<optional return> conf value is ratio
                      of max/min scores; use NULL to skip)
    Return: pixd (deskewed pix), or null on error

Notes:
    (1) This binarizes if necessary and finds the skew angle.  If the
        angle is large enough and there is sufficient confidence,
        it returns a deskewed image; otherwise, it returns a clone.

pixFindDifferentialSquareSum

l_int32 pixFindDifferentialSquareSum ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *psum )

pixFindDifferentialSquareSum()

    Input:  pixs
            &sum  (<return> result)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error

Notes:
    (1) At the top and bottom, we skip:
         - at least one scanline
         - not more than 10% of the image height
         - not more than 5% of the image width

pixFindNormalizedSquareSum

l_int32 pixFindNormalizedSquareSum ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *phratio, l_float32 *pvratio, l_float32 *pfract )

pixFindNormalizedSquareSum()

    Input:  pixs
            &hratio (<optional return> ratio of normalized horiz square sum
                     to result if the pixel distribution were uniform)
            &vratio (<optional return> ratio of normalized vert square sum
                     to result if the pixel distribution were uniform)
            &fract  (<optional return> ratio of fg pixels to total pixels)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if there are no fg pixels

Notes:
    (1) Let the image have h scanlines and N fg pixels.
        If the pixels were uniformly distributed on scanlines,
        the sum of squares of fg pixels on each scanline would be
        h * (N / h)^2.  However, if the pixels are not uniformly
        distributed (e.g., for text), the sum of squares of fg
        pixels will be larger.  We return in hratio and vratio the
        ratio of these two values.
    (2) If there are no fg pixels, hratio and vratio are returned as 0.0.

pixFindSkew

l_int32 pixFindSkew ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf )

pixFindSkew()

    Input:  pixs  (1 bpp)
            &angle   (<return> angle required to deskew, in degrees)
            &conf    (<return> confidence value is ratio max/min scores)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if angle measurment not valid

Notes:
    (1) This is a simple high-level interface, that uses default
        values of the parameters for reasonable speed and accuracy.
    (2) The angle returned is the negative of the skew angle of
        the image.  It is the angle required for deskew.
        Clockwise rotations are positive angles.

pixFindSkewAndDeskew

PIX * pixFindSkewAndDeskew ( PIX *pixs, l_int32 redsearch, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf )

pixFindSkewAndDeskew()

    Input:  pixs (any depth)
            redsearch (for binary search: reduction factor = 1, 2 or 4;
                       use 0 for default)
            &angle   (<optional return> angle required to deskew,
                      in degrees; use NULL to skip)
            &conf    (<optional return> conf value is ratio
                      of max/min scores; use NULL to skip)
    Return: pixd (deskewed pix), or null on error

Notes:
    (1) This binarizes if necessary and finds the skew angle.  If the
        angle is large enough and there is sufficient confidence,
        it returns a deskewed image; otherwise, it returns a clone.

pixFindSkewOrthogonalRange

l_int32 pixFindSkewOrthogonalRange ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf, l_int32 redsweep, l_int32 redsearch, l_float32 sweeprange, l_float32 sweepdelta, l_float32 minbsdelta, l_float32 confprior )

 pixFindSkewOrthogonalRange()

    Input:  pixs  (1 bpp)
            &angle  (<return> angle required to deskew; in degrees cw)
            &conf   (<return> confidence given by ratio of max/min score)
            redsweep  (sweep reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8)
            redsearch  (binary search reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8;
                        and must not exceed redsweep)
            sweeprange  (half the full range in each orthogonal
                         direction, taken about 0, in degrees)
            sweepdelta   (angle increment of sweep; in degrees)
            minbsdelta   (min binary search increment angle; in degrees)
            confprior  (amount by which confidence of 90 degree rotated
                        result is reduced when comparing with unrotated
                        confidence value)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if angle measurment not valid

Notes:
    (1) This searches for the skew angle, first in the range
        [-sweeprange, sweeprange], and then in
        [90 - sweeprange, 90 + sweeprange], with angles measured
        clockwise.  For exploring the full range of possibilities,
        suggest using sweeprange = 47.0 degrees, giving some overlap
        at 45 and 135 degrees.  From these results, and discounting
        the the second confidence by @confprior, it selects the
        angle for maximal differential variance.  If the angle
        is larger than pi/4, the angle found after 90 degree rotation
        is selected.
    (2) The larger the confidence value, the greater the probability
        that the proper alignment is given by the angle that maximizes
        variance.  It should be compared to a threshold, which depends
        on the application.  Values between 3.0 and 6.0 are common.
    (3) Allowing for both portrait and landscape searches is more
        difficult, because if the signal from the text lines is weak,
        a signal from vertical rules can be larger!
        The most difficult documents to deskew have some or all of:
          (a) Multiple columns, not aligned
          (b) Black lines along the vertical edges
          (c) Text from two pages, and at different angles
        Rule of thumb for resolution:
          (a) If the margins are clean, you can work at 75 ppi,
              although 100 ppi is safer.
          (b) If there are vertical lines in the margins, do not
              work below 150 ppi.  The signal from the text lines must
              exceed that from the margin lines.
    (4) Choosing the @confprior parameter depends on knowing something
        about the source of image.  However, we're not using
        real probabilities here, so its use is qualitative.
        If landscape and portrait are equally likely, use
        @confprior = 0.0.  If the likelihood of portrait (non-rotated)
        is 100 times higher than that of landscape, we want to reduce
        the chance that we rotate to landscape in a situation where
        the landscape signal is accidentally larger than the
        portrait signal.  To do this use a positive value of
        @confprior; say 1.5.

pixFindSkewSweep

l_int32 pixFindSkewSweep ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *pangle, l_int32 reduction, l_float32 sweeprange, l_float32 sweepdelta )

pixFindSkewSweep()

    Input:  pixs  (1 bpp)
            &angle   (<return> angle required to deskew, in degrees)
            reduction  (factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8)
            sweeprange   (half the full range; assumed about 0; in degrees)
            sweepdelta   (angle increment of sweep; in degrees)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if angle measurment not valid

Notes:
    (1) This examines the 'score' for skew angles with equal intervals.
    (2) Caller must check the return value for validity of the result.

pixFindSkewSweepAndSearch

l_int32 pixFindSkewSweepAndSearch ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf, l_int32 redsweep, l_int32 redsearch, l_float32 sweeprange, l_float32 sweepdelta, l_float32 minbsdelta )

pixFindSkewSweepAndSearch()

    Input:  pixs  (1 bpp)
            &angle   (<return> angle required to deskew; in degrees)
            &conf    (<return> confidence given by ratio of max/min score)
            redsweep  (sweep reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8)
            redsearch  (binary search reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8;
                        and must not exceed redsweep)
            sweeprange   (half the full range, assumed about 0; in degrees)
            sweepdelta   (angle increment of sweep; in degrees)
            minbsdelta   (min binary search increment angle; in degrees)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if angle measurment not valid

Notes:
    (1) This finds the skew angle, doing first a sweep through a set
        of equal angles, and then doing a binary search until
        convergence.
    (2) Caller must check the return value for validity of the result.
    (3) In computing the differential line sum variance score, we sum
        the result over scanlines, but we always skip:
         - at least one scanline
         - not more than 10% of the image height
         - not more than 5% of the image width
    (4) See also notes in pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScore()

pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScore

l_int32 pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScore ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf, l_float32 *pendscore, l_int32 redsweep, l_int32 redsearch, l_float32 sweepcenter, l_float32 sweeprange, l_float32 sweepdelta, l_float32 minbsdelta )

pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScore()

    Input:  pixs  (1 bpp)
            &angle   (<return> angle required to deskew; in degrees)
            &conf    (<return> confidence given by ratio of max/min score)
            &endscore (<optional return> max score; use NULL to ignore)
            redsweep  (sweep reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8)
            redsearch  (binary search reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8;
                        and must not exceed redsweep)
            sweepcenter  (angle about which sweep is performed; in degrees)
            sweeprange   (half the full range, taken about sweepcenter;
                          in degrees)
            sweepdelta   (angle increment of sweep; in degrees)
            minbsdelta   (min binary search increment angle; in degrees)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if angle measurment not valid

Notes:
    (1) This finds the skew angle, doing first a sweep through a set
        of equal angles, and then doing a binary search until convergence.
    (2) There are two built-in constants that determine if the
        returned confidence is nonzero:
          - MIN_VALID_MAXSCORE (minimum allowed maxscore)
          - MINSCORE_THRESHOLD_CONSTANT (determines minimum allowed
               minscore, by multiplying by (height * width^2)
        If either of these conditions is not satisfied, the returned
        confidence value will be zero.  The maxscore is optionally
        returned in this function to allow evaluation of the
        resulting angle by a method that is independent of the
        returned confidence value.
    (3) The larger the confidence value, the greater the probability
        that the proper alignment is given by the angle that maximizes
        variance.  It should be compared to a threshold, which depends
        on the application.  Values between 3.0 and 6.0 are common.
    (4) By default, the shear is about the UL corner.

pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScorePivot

l_int32 pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScorePivot ( PIX *pixs, l_float32 *pangle, l_float32 *pconf, l_float32 *pendscore, l_int32 redsweep, l_int32 redsearch, l_float32 sweepcenter, l_float32 sweeprange, l_float32 sweepdelta, l_float32 minbsdelta, l_int32 pivot )

pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScorePivot()

    Input:  pixs  (1 bpp)
            &angle   (<return> angle required to deskew; in degrees)
            &conf    (<return> confidence given by ratio of max/min score)
            &endscore (<optional return> max score; use NULL to ignore)
            redsweep  (sweep reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8)
            redsearch  (binary search reduction factor = 1, 2, 4 or 8;
                        and must not exceed redsweep)
            sweepcenter  (angle about which sweep is performed; in degrees)
            sweeprange   (half the full range, taken about sweepcenter;
                          in degrees)
            sweepdelta   (angle increment of sweep; in degrees)
            minbsdelta   (min binary search increment angle; in degrees)
            pivot  (L_SHEAR_ABOUT_CORNER, L_SHEAR_ABOUT_CENTER)
    Return: 0 if OK, 1 on error or if angle measurment not valid

Notes:
    (1) See notes in pixFindSkewSweepAndSearchScore().
    (2) This allows choice of shear pivoting from either the UL corner
        or the center.  For small angles, the ability to discriminate
        angles is better with shearing from the UL corner.  However,
        for large angles (say, greater than 20 degrees), it is better
        to shear about the center because a shear from the UL corner
        loses too much of the image.

AUTHOR

Zakariyya Mughal <zmughal@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Zakariyya Mughal.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.