INESC TEC

The Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science INESC TEC is an Associate Laboratory with more than 30 years of experience in R&D and technology transfer, incorporating 13 R&D Centres and 1 associate Unit, always looking to the international mark.

FEUP campus Rua 4200 - 465 Porto Portugal

CoSi – Method and Device for Colour Similarity Evaluation

managed by INESC TEC

TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION

Colour differences are of great importance in many applications, particularly when image processing or computer vision techniques are to be employed.
The CoSi technology can evaluate colour similarity, i.e., comparing two colours in a low processing time. It is applicable to areas such as Multimedia, Healthcare and Agro-food.
- Challenge | Opportunity
The usage of colour similarity algorithms has been increasingly important in several fields of application, such as: image and video analysis and processing, content management, or real colour comparison. All these use image segmentation, often a critical step, whose outcome affects the results of the following processing possibly preventing proper operation.
Despite the many years of research, image segmentation is still an unresolved research topic, with colour identification playing a key role. Its main challenges are: the noise resulting from the segmentation; the computational cost, complexity, or time to comply with recommended metrics (which prevents its application in many scenarios, particularly those with real time constraints or portability needs); and finally they can be severely affected by illumination and the discrimination between closer colours is rarely easy.
Nevertheless, many industries benefit from these algorithms and they all have in common several requirements, namely: quickness, low processing complexity, and high accuracy, which are addressed by this technology.

BENEFITS

• Quickness
• Low processing complexity
• High accuracy

LIMITATIONS

The need to define the concrete parameter of colour difference (delta E) to bound the system limits.

APPLICATIONS

• Image segmentation (as a critical step in image and video processing algorithms)
• Digital image processing
• Computer vision
• Specific industries:
- Entertainment
- E-commerce
- Health
- Agro-food
- Materials

MATERIALS

Readiness Level (TRL)

3
experimental proof of concept(The pie chart refers to the entire portfolio contained in the database of the helpdesk)

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a method of estimating technology maturity of Critical Technology Elements (CTE) of a program during the acquisition process. The use of TRLs enables consistent, uniform, discussions of technical maturity across different types of technology.

Patent Grading Report

Patent Grading Report

The Grading Patents Report evaluates and grades US patents

Sample Buy from Wisdomain

STATUS

Current status

PCT Application

AVAILABILITY

Available for

Licensing

INVENTOR / TEAM

INESC TEC

EU-Japan Centre
European CommissionMeti