A novel method for accurate and efficient barcode detection with morphological operations

Barcode technology is the pillar of automatic identification, that is used in a wide range of real-time applications with various types of codes. The different types of codes and applications impose special problems, so there is a continuous need for solutions with improved effectiveness. There are several methods for barcode localization, that are well characterized by accuracy and speed. Particularly, high-speed processing places need automatic barcode localization, e. g. conveyor belts, automated production, where missed detections cause loss of profit. In this paper, we mainly deal with segmentation of images with 1D barcode, but also analyze the operation of different methods for 2D barcode images as well. Our goal is to detect automatically, rapidly and accurately the barcode location by the help of extracted features. We compare some published method from the literature, which basically rely on the contrast between the background and the shape that represent the code. We also propose a novel algorithm, that outperforms the others in both accuracy and efficiency in detecting 1D codes.