Matching book-spine images for library shelf-reading process automation

Machine vision has become an important visual inspection technology for many automation applications. Using machine vision for automation can reduce operating costs and increase efficiency and accuracy. This paper presents an image matching technique designed specifically for improving the library inventory (shelf-reading) process. In contrast with more complex color image matching techniques, the proposed method quantizes color images of book spines into a limited number of color indices and performs image matching on the quantized color index images. This approach simplifies and speeds up the processing and improves the overall inventory process. The potential performance of this robust color quantization and image matching technique is demonstrated by the results of preliminary experiments.