Systems and methods for processing mobile images to identify and extract content from forms

Abstract

Systems and methods for matching a received image with a template image are disclosed herein. Such systems and methods can advantageously enable an image captured by a mobile device (such as a smartphone or digital camera) to be correctly identified by the processing application. In some embodiments, the received image is first resized in one or both dimensions in order to match or approximately match the dimensions of a given template. The received image and template image can then be superimposed. Next, an optimal translative transformation value can be calculated in order to generate a confidence level for the current possible match. After confidence levels for each template are generated and recorded, the template with the highest confidence level can be selected as the best match for the received image.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by a computer, perform a process of resizing a dimension of a received image to match or approximately match a corresponding dimension of template image, the process comprising:
 identifying a first set of lines in a received image and a second set of lines in a template image;   selecting a first subset of lines from the first set of lines, and selecting a second subset of lines from the second set of lines, wherein each line of the first subset is longer than a first predetermined minimum length, and wherein each line of the subset is longer than a second predetermined minimum length;   calculating distances between subsequent lines in the first subset, and calculating distances between subsequent lines in the second subset;   calculating ratios between successive distances in the first subset, and calculating ratios between subsequent distances in the second subset;   pairing ratios in the first subset with ratios in the second subset if the differences between two ratios exceeds a predetermined threshold of similarity;   for each matching pair of ratios, calculating a ratio similarity coefficient that is less than or equal to a predetermined value;   storing each ratio similarity coefficient in a similarity coefficient vector;   sorting the vector;   calculating a hypothesis similarity coefficient based at least in part upon the median of the sorted vector;   from a set of all hypothesis similarity coefficients calculated in this manner, selecting the hypothesis similarity coefficient with the greatest value; and   resizing the dimension of the received image based at least in part upon the selected hypothesis similarity coefficient.