This application claims the benefit of Taiwan Patent Application No. 098139047, filed on Nov. 17, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a counting system, a counting method, and a recording medium, and more particularly to an aquatic-animal counting system, an aquatic-animal counting method, and a recording medium.
2. Related Art
The aquaculture industry has very high economic values for the whole world. Especially for Taiwan where surrounded by seas, the annual yield of aquaculture brings great business opportunities.
For example, when a seller in the aquaculture industry wants to sell a batch of fish (such as fish fries, shrimp fries or full fish) to a buyer, the seller in the aquaculture industry usually counts the whole batch of fish according to demands of the buyer, so as to accomplish exchange.
However, the fish number is usually counted manually, which is quite time-consuming. Thus, in recent years, existing counting equipment dedicated to calculating, for example the fish number, gradually becomes commercially available. However, in order to avoid photographing repetitive fish, the counting equipment needs to be deployed a fixed sink area to place fish in batches. Subsequently, a photographing device is utilized to photograph fish held inside the sink area to generate an image and count the fish shapes in the image. After that, another batch of fish is placed for the second photographing and the number of the fish shapes in the image is calculated. Therefore, although the repetitive fish replacing and photographing operations are more convenient than manual counting, time still has to be cost to move and replace the fish, and the photographing still has to consume much time. Thus, the overall counting efficiency still needs to be improved.
In view of this, the present invention is directed to a counting system, a counting method, and a recording medium, which improve efficiency for counting aquatic animals.
According to the above objectives, the present invention provides an aquatic-animal counting system, which includes a channel, a linear photographing device, and an operation processing device. The channel is used for a plurality of aquatic animals to pass through. The linear photographing device is used for photographing the aquatic animals passing through the channel to generate at least one image. The operation processing device is electrically connected to the linear photographing device and the operation processing device includes an image processing module, and the image processing module utilizes at least one operation rule to analyze the at least one image, so as to calculate a number of the aquatic animals in the at least one image.
According to the above objectives, the present invention also provides an aquatic-animal counting method, which includes the following steps. A channel is provided for a plurality of aquatic animals to pass through. A linear photographing device is utilized to photograph the aquatic animals passing through the channel to generate at least one image. An operation processing device is provided to utilize at least one operation rule to analyze the at least one image, so as to calculate a number of the aquatic animals in the at least one image.
According to the above objectives, the present invention further provides a computer readable recording medium, which is used for storing a computer program applicable to a channel, a linear photographing device, and an operation processing device. The channel is used for a plurality of aquatic animals to pass through. The linear photographing device photographs the aquatic animals passing through the channel to generate at least one image. When the computer program runs on the operation processing device, a method of counting aquatic animal fries is accomplished. The method includes the following step. At least one operation rule is utilized to analyze the at least one image, so as to calculate a number of the aquatic animals in the at least one image.
The present invention has an efficacy that a linear photographing device is used to photograph aquatic animals passing through the channel in real time, such that the number of shapes of the rapidly moving aquatic animals is calculated in real time in cooperation with the image processing module, so as to greatly increase the efficiency of the counting operation.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
In order to make the above objectives, features, and characteristics of the present invention more comprehensible, related embodiments of the present invention are illustrated below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
The inlet 11 is used for accommodating a plurality of aquatic animals. The plurality of aquatic animals is illustrated as a plurality of fish fries below and in
The fish fries are rapidly transferred from the inlet 11 at a high position to the outlet 12 at a low position through the channel 13 through the assistance of a water flow W. A support 130 is disposed on the channel 13, and the channel 13 includes a transparent wall body 131, which, for example, is made of a transparent material of white light-transmissive acrylic sheet. A frame 132 is connected below the transparent wall body 131. A light emitting unit 133 for providing a high-luminance light source is positioned inside the frame 132.
In addition, the water flow delivery equipment 10 includes a flow cycle pump 14 enabling the water flow W to cycle between the inlet 11, the channel 13 and the outlet 12. The water flow delivery equipment 10 includes a water level controller. The water level controller is used for controlling a height of the water flow W (as shown in
The linear photographing device 20 is positioned on the support 130. The linear photographing device 20 is used for photographing the fish fries rapidly passing through the flow slope 13 in real time, so as to generate at least one image. The high-luminance light source provided by the light emitting unit 133 enhances distinctiveness of shapes of the fish fries in the image generated through photographing of the linear photographing device 20. That is to say, the operation processing system 30 can recognize fish fry shapes of the fish fries in the image more easily.
The operation processing system 30 is electrically connected to the linear photographing device 20 (the electrically connected portion is represented by a double arrow in
The operation processing system 30 includes an image processing module 31. The image processing module 31 utilizes at least one operation rule to analyze the at least one image generated through photographing by the photographing device 20, so as to calculate the number of the fish fry shapes corresponding to the real fish fry in the image. The operation processing system 30 further includes a display unit 32, a storage unit 33, a control unit 34, a temporary storage unit 35, and a database 36.
The display unit 32 is used for displaying the number of the fish fries or related counting information. The storage unit 33 is used for recording the number of the fish fries or related counting information. The control unit 34 is implemented through a keyboard, and is used for a user to input instruction information (instruction information such as an overlapping pixel parameter value of a fish fry shape or a default scanning parameter value used for determining scanning times of the linear photographing device 20 to generate an image). The temporary storage unit 35 is used for temporarily storing data to be operated by the image processing module 31. The database 36 is used for pre-storing related information of the fish fries, for example, picture reference pixel values of the image of the fish fry shapes. That is, the user can establish a standard for sizes of the fish fries to be counted in advance and pre-store the picture reference pixel values corresponding to the standard in the database 36, which will be used when the image processing module 31 calculates the number of the fish fry shapes.
As shown in
In S100, a channel is provided for a plurality of aquatic animals to pass through;
In S110, a linear photographing device is utilized for photographing the aquatic animals passing through the channel to generate at least one image; and
In S120, an operation processing device is provided for utilizing at least one operation rule to analyze the at least one image, so as to calculate a number of the aquatic animals in the at least one image.
For helping to understand, the method for counting aquatic animal fries is illustrated below with reference to the counting system 1 of aquatic animal fries in
First, Step S100 is performed, in which a channel is provided for a plurality of aquatic animals to pass through.
Further in this step, a water flow delivery equipment 10 can be prepared. The water flow delivery equipment 10 has a channel 13. An inlet 11 and an outlet 12 are disposed at the two ends of the channel 13. Specifically, the inlet 11 is located at a high position, the outlet 12 is located at a low position, and the channel 13 is a slope from the inlet 11 down to the outlet 12.
Preferably, a support 130 is disposed on the channel 13, and the channel 13 includes a transparent wall body 131, which, for example, is made of a transparent material of a white light-transmissive acrylic sheet. The whole channel 13 can be a transparent wall body 131 in another case. A frame 132 is connected below the transparent wall body 131. A light emitting unit 133 for providing a high-luminance light source is positioned within the frame 132.
Next, Step S110 is performed, in which a linear photographing device is utilized for photographing the aquatic animals passing through the channel to generate at least one image
Further in this step, the linear photographing device 20 can be positioned linear photographing device on the support 130, so as to photograph the fish fries passing through the flow slope 13 rapidly in real time to generate at least one image. The high-luminance light source provided by the light emitting unit 133 enhances distinctiveness of the fish fries in the image generated through photographing of the linear photographing device 20. That is to say, an image processing module 31 of the operation processing system 30 can recognize the fish fry shapes corresponding to the fish fries in the image more easily.
After the linear photographing device 20 photographs the fish fries passing through the flow slope 13 rapidly in real time and generates fish fry shapes corresponding to the fish fries on the flow slope 13, the image processing module 31 first performs image processing procedures on the 2D images 40 scanned by the linear photographing device 20 continually. The image processing procedures include one of the image noise processing operation, gray scaling operation, and binarization operation. As this part is in the technical scope that persons skilled in the art can comprehend, the illustration of the part is omitted here.
Next, Step S120 is performed, in which an operation processing device is provided for utilizing at least one operation rule to analyze the at least one image, so as to calculate a number of the aquatic animals in the at least one image.
Further in this step, the image processing module 31 analyzes and calculates the number of the shapes of the fish fries corresponding to the real number of the fish fries in the 2D image 40 after the image processing procedures according to the at least one operation rule. The at least one operation rule includes an opening and closing algorithm, a block algorithm, and an image overlapping correction algorithm.
For example, the image processing module 31 determines whether a part of the shapes 41 of the fish fries in the 2D image 40 include an overlapping shape first. If the shapes 41 of the fish fries include no overlapping shape, the image processing module 31 performs a block filling operation on the shapes 41 of the fish fries in the 2D image 40 according to the block algorithm, and the filled shapes 41 are counted at the same time. Thus, the image processing module 31 can calculate the number corresponding to the real number of the fish fries from the shapes 41 of the fish fries in the 2D image 40.
Referring to
It should be noted that the default overlapping parameter is a pixel value input through the control unit 34 by the user in advance. In such a manner, the image processing module 31 utilizes the opening and closing algorithm to process the slightly overlapping image 500 of the 2D image 50 according to the pixel value.
Referring to
Referring to
Subsequently, after the image processing module 31 receives at least one corresponding shape 61′ scanned by the linear photographing device 20 and having the corresponding at least one boundary picture 502 at a start boundary E′ of another 2D image (for example, a boundary picture 602 of an (n+1)th segmental image), the image processing module 31 also utilizes the block algorithm to calculate the shape number of the whole part of fish fries in the at least one boundary shape 502 and the at least one corresponding shape 61′ (for example, one in
As can be seen from the above, the image processing module 31 calculates the number of shapes of the fish fries corresponding to the real number of the fish fries according to the at least one operation rule, so as to calculate the actual number of the rapidly moving fish fries on the flow slope 13, thus greatly increasing the efficiency of the counting operation.
In addition, the method for counting aquatic animal fries may also be applied in a recording medium. The recording medium is used for storing a computer program, and is applicable to within a channel, a linear photographing device and a operation processing device, which the channel is provided for a plurality of aquatic animals to pass through and the linear photographing device is utilized for photographing the aquatic animals passing through the channel to generate at least one image. When the computer program is executed by an operation processing system, the operation processing system accomplishes a method for counting the aquatic animal fries. For simplicity of description, the details will not be illustrated again here.
As can be seen from above, the counting system and the counting method of aquatic animal fries, and a recording medium provided in present invention have the following advantages. The gradient of the flow slope of the water flow delivery equipment is used, and the linear photographing device is used to photograph the aquatic animals passing through the flow slope in real time. Therefore, in combination with the image processing module, the number of shapes of the rapidly moving aquatic animal can be calculated in real time, thus further reducing the counting time, and greatly increasing the efficiency of the counting operation of the aquatic animal fries. Even the aquatic-animal counting system is particularly applied to count the aquatic animals, this system can also be applied to do other counting, such as counting for animals, plants, or products.
In conclusion, the above are only preferred implementations or embodiments of the present invention for presenting the technical solutions to solve the problems, but are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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098139047 | Nov 2009 | TW | national |