Aztec Core Symbol Detection Method based on Connected Components Extraction and Contour Signature Analysis

Two dimensional bar codes are widely used in our life: retail shopping, e-ticketing, advertisement. One of the most widespread symbology (type) is Aztec Code. To read a message from Aztec Code, it first of all must be localized in the input image. To simplify this task, the bar code specification introduces a special part called Core Symbol. In current work, a topological localization method for this part is presented. It relies on a connected components extraction, contour signature analysis and uses lines estimated by the fast Hough transform. It is invariant to scaling and rotation transformations of bar code images and is able to deal with partially corrupted Core Symbols. The technique for method quality measurement is provided. As a base line we consider an algorithm with quality equal to 94.61% which follows the ISO recommendations. The obtained result for the proposed algorithm is 99.03%.