Helpful Tips

1. What do the parts flicker sometimes?

When the identification fails the part will be deleted from the current image. Thus for moments at a time a part may disappear due to a mismatch.

2. Can parts have holes?

Yes, in fact any holes in an object help by contributing to the matching process. Having consistent holes in an object can make it more unique with regard to other objects.

3. I have a mismatched part. How do I remove it using the Shape Module?

If you are matching a part with very low confidence due to the part not actually being in the database use the Confidence filter in the Shape Matching module to remove parts that have low confidence. Any part that is below 80% is probably not a good match. The default zero setting allows any confidence level which may result in incorrect matching. This can be corrected by increasing the minimum confidence value allowed.

4. How do I improve recognition?

Try to make the parts as large in the camera view as possible. The more detail in the image of the part the better the identification process can discriminate between similar objects.

If you do consistently get incorrect matches try using the filter options in the shape matching module to reduce the search space. For example, you can turn off rotational invariance which will only match objects based on the orientation of the database template file. Or you can use the size percent to eliminate really large or off-scale matches. Remember, the module is trying to match shapes at any size which can sometimes cause it to create bizarre comparisons. Telling it what to ignore can help reduce this confusion.

Be sure your objects are well segmented. Note that you NEED a black and white image in order for the shape matching to work. Your parts need to be in white and your background in black. If they are not, use the Negative module to flip black parts into white.

Be sure that your outline of the object is relatively smooth. If it isn't try using the Smooth Hull module to soften the objects outline.

Don't expect the orientation to work on symmetrical objects. A perfect circle has no orientation. Objects with one symmetrical axis such as your face can cause the orientation to flip 180 degrees at random. To get the best orientation your part will have to be asymmetrical in shape.

Let's see how this all comes together ...