456Blob Search Tool

This tool allows the user to search an image for a specific color, distance, or shape pattern, once it has been trained upon a specific portion of the image as a blob.

Using the Blob Search Tool

A Blob must be inputted into the Blob Search tool's inputs page in order for the tool to work.
1. Drag and drop the blob search tool from it's position into the ROT Main, then "left click" onto it. This will allow an ROI to be placed into the image in the viewer. It will be located as a blue box in the upper left     hand corner of the CIF Viewer. 
2. Move the ROI to the desired place and select "train".
3. Run the tool. Once the tool is run the information about the blobs will be stored within the tool's results page.

Inputs:

A blob set or a blob tool that has found blobs within it will need to be inputted into this tool in order for the tool to work.

CIFViewer
The Viewer that displays the "Blobs"
               
CIF
The input image.  CIF stands for "Common Image Format".  This is Automation Manager's native graphics format (like .jpg or .bmp).  

ROI
"Region of Interest". By default this is the green rectangle that is placed on the screen when the tool is selected. Supports most ROI shapes. Only used to Train. The Search lys searches all presented blobs.

Blobs
Where the blob set or other blob tool needs to be "dragged and dropped" to for the Blob Search tool to find it's information.

Blob Compare:

This portion of the tool takes comparisons from the original blob used and compares it with the set parameters/areas that the user has set on the blob compare page and checks those against the last blob found.

Results:

Results:  
  The number selection at the top will allow the user to change which blobs information they are looking at.    
    Number Blobs:
The number of blobs found and measured.

    Total Area: The combined area of all the blobs.

    For each blob:
    Area
    Perimeter
    Location
    Number of holes/children
    Foreground or background
    Moments about each axis
    Width
    Height
    Roundness 1 being round else < than 1
    Squareness 1 being square else < than 1
    Form factor Width/Height never exceeding 1

    The number selection at the bottom shows the colors of each blob in terms of blue (1) green (2) and red (3).

Parameters:

 Normalize Distance: If this box is checked, It will normalize it's findings according to the area. So if it finds a similar image but the image is smaller than the original image, the tool will compare the area and                                    dimensions of the new blob  against the old to find if it is similar or the same.
Tolerance Distance: The distance the user will tolerate the new image as compared to the old image. The Tolerance expected will be found by finding the difference and subtracting it.
Maximum Compared Error: The max amount of error the user is willing to have between the images. This will also be found by subtracting the difference.
Find Rotated: If this box is checked, the tool will find blobs that are similar to the original in any rotation.
Compare Method: This allows the user to decide what parameters the tool will compare the trained blob against the new blobs found. This tool has 4 options.
    Color Distance Only: Compares findings according to color only. This will only find exact matches to the colors found within the color filter.
    Difference: Compares the attributes of the blobs found to those of the model. These will be listed on the Blob Compare page. The comparison will be 0.00 if the finding is a perfect match in that             category and will be 1.00 if it is not a perfect match. Any tool in the Compare Method that compares attributes will demonstrate these results within the Blob Compare page.
    Normalized: Compares against the area and color of the first blob.
    Ratio: Compares in terms of an attribute ratio, uses division to find a match.
    Debug: This portion of the tool is for the programmers use, the user can ignore this option.
Sort Attribute:  The user may select an attribute by which to sort the information, or the "no sort" option may be selected.
Sort Descending: If checked, the blobs are sorted in descending order on the sort criteria.
Line Index Origin: Using this part of the tool with the "line index vector" allows the user to compare the blobs using the different portions of the blob or sets of colors. For example it could measure from part 1 to part 2 or the distance from part 1 to part 3, this would allow for more precise measurements. The number set in the Line Index Origin is the starting point position for these comparisons.
Line Index Vector: Use this portion of the tool with the "Line Index Origin". The Vector number is set to a number higher than zero to find a length as a comparison. This will compare across the image for distance in proportion to the rest of the image and area.
Count: The number of new blobs found.
Points: Indicates the number of points found.
Lines: Indicates the number of lines found.
Render Style Points: The user may choose what the appearance of the newly found points will be.
Render Style Lines: The user may choose what the appearance of the newly found lines will be.
Refresh Viewer: This indicates how the image will appear in the viewer.

Example:

213    

 So, If these blob images were inputted into the Blob Search tool and the tool was trained on the top pattern of red, black, and blue blobs, then the image would be able to find the second blob image that is located below the first set in out example picture. The user could also set the parameters to measure across from teh red image to the blue to get the distance from the origin by a vector (or to get other measurements depending on how the user chooses to set up the parameters). The tool would then allow comparisons to be done between the two images for the user to get a complete picture of the blobs found.