7.3.1   Introducing the Matching Assistant of HDevelop

The Matching Assistant of HDevelop is a front-end to HALCON's powerful matching methods:

For information on these matching methods and how to choose a suitable method for your application, please refer to the Solution Guide II-B: Matching.

Using the Matching Assistant you can

All you need is a single model image and a set of test images. The Matching Assistant guides and assists you setting up and optimizing your matching application. Its individual elements are explained in the part 匹配助手参考.

In this manual, the following special terms are used:

Matching  
Matching is the process of locating an object described by a model in an image. The main results of the matching process are the position and orientation of the found object instance and its matching score.

Alignment  
This method can be applied to transform the position of the matched object corresponding to the reference image. Alignment is useful if the following image processing step is not invariant against rotation or translation, like OCR or the variation model. Note that by alignment the matched object is only rotated and translated. More information about alignment using shape-based matching can be found in the Solution Guide II-B: Matching. To remove perspective or lens distortions, for example, if the camera observes the scene under an inclined angle, you must rectify the image first.

Model  
The model is an internal representation of the object containing only the information characterizing the object. This model is created by the assistant from an example image of the object, the model image, which is provided by you. The model is used when searching for the object in the test images. You can also provide the Matching Assistant with a model, see section “The Menu File.

Model Image  
This is the image containing your example of the object to be searched for. This image should be a characteristic image of the object. The object should appear in its default position and orientation and not be occluded.

Reference Image  
If a reference image is selected, the position of the match in this image is used as reference. This is necessary to perform alignment. If no reference image is chosen, the model image will be used as basis for alignment.

Model Region of Interest (ROI)  
This is the region in the model image which contains the object to be trained. You can select this region via the menu item ROI.

Rectification  
This method can be applied to the search image to transform it such that the found model and the model in the reference image appear as similar as possible. Rectfying an image is useful for all further processes that rely on fixed ROIs, like measuring and OCR.

Test Image  
You can test the performance of the matching process by providing test images. These images should be representative images from your matching application. The object should appear in all allowed variations of its position, orientation, occlusion, and illumination.