Reconstruct argorithm of 2D barcode for reading the QR code on cylindrical surface

Abstract

Traditional barcode recognition algorithm usually do not fit the cylindrical code but the one on flat surface. This paper proposes a low-cost approach to implement recognition of the curved QR codes printed on bottles or cans. Finder patterns are extracted from detecting module width proportion and corners of contours and an efficient direct least-square ellipse fitting method is employed to extract the elliptic edge and the boundary of code region. Then the code is reconstructed by direct mapping from the stereoscopic coordinates to the image plane using the 3D back-projection, thus the data of code could be restored. Compared with previous approaches, the proposed algorithm outperforms in not only the computation amount but also higher accuracy of the barcode recognition, whether in the flat or the cylindrical surface.