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ABSTRACT
The objective of the project is to segregate postal letters according to the regions (i.e. North, East, West or South) to which they are addressed, by reading the pin codes. This is achieved through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) algorithm and vision utilities available in NI Embedded Vision System.The hardware setup consists of a Basler Scout monochrome camera which acquires the image of the post letter, a conveyor that carries the letter through the system and an end sorter with four bins each corresponding to a particular region. The letter is detected by an IR sensor and an image of the postal letter is

automatically captured by the camera, these two events happen in synchronization.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER NO. ACKNOWLEGMENT ABSTRACT LIST OF TABLE LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF ABBREVIATION 1. Introduction 1.1 Overview: The Postal Index System 1.2 Elements of VAPLSS 1.3 Working of VAPLSS 1.4 Structure of VAPLSS 1.4.1 Letter Feed 1.4.2 Image Acquisition 1.4.3 Image Processing 1.4.4 Transport Mechanism 1.4.5 End Sorter 2 System Analysis 2.1 Subject of Analysis 2.2 Software Environment 2.3 Hardware 2.3.1 Processor 2.3.2 Camera 3.4 Mechanical System 3.5 Sensors and Drives 2.5.1 Sensors 2.5.2 Drives 2.6 Controller 3 System Design 3.1 Software Development TITLE PAGE NO. iii iv viii viii x 1 1 2 3 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 9 9
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3.1.1 LabVIEW: An Overview 4 3.1.1.1 Front Panel .1.1.2 Block Diagram 3.1.1.3 Tools Palettes 3.1.1.4 Control Palettes 3.1.1.5 Functions Palette 3.1.2 Working with NI IMAQdx Palette in LabVIEW 3.1.3 Basic Vision Tool in LabVIEW 3.1.4 Introduction to NI-Vision Assistant 3.1.5 Image Processing Functions 3.1.6 Image Masking 3.1.7 Optical Character Recognition (OCR) 3.1.8 OCR Training 3.1.9 Reading Characters 3.1.10 Character Segmentation 3.1.11 Region of Interest (ROI) 3.1.12 Thresholding 3.1.13 Read Strategy 3.1.14 Acceptance Level 3.2 System Hardware 3.2.1 NI Embedded Vision System (NI EVS 1464 RT) 3.2.2 Basler Scout Camera 3.2.3 DAQ Card NI USB-6009 3.3 Mechanical Structure 3.3.1 Conveyor 3.3.2 Camera Mount 3.3.3 End Sorter 3.4 Electrical Components 3.4.1 Power Circuit Board 3.5 Electronic Components 3.5.1 Controller

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3.5.2 High Torque Motor Driver

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Coding

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4.1 LabVIEW Code Development 4.1.1 Image Acquisition Session 4.1.2 Pattern Matching Session 4.1.3 OCR and Output Session 4.2 Arduino Uno Controller Programming 4.2.1 Objectives 4.2.2 Sequence of Action 4.2.3 Program 4.2.4 Explanation 5 Testing 5.1 Software Simulation and Testing 5.2 Software Testing Results 5.3 Problems Encountered and their Solutions 5.3.1 Problem faced in Software 5.3.2 Problem faced in Hardware 6 7 Conclusions Future Enhancements Appendices I Appendices II References

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List of Tables
Table 6.1 Result of 50 samples for Software Testing Table 6.2 Result statistics of Testing 55 56

List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Block Diagram of the System Figure 1.2 Flow Diagram of VAPLSS Figure 3.1 Front panel Figure 3.2 Block Diagram Figure 3.3 Tool Palette Figure 3.4 Control Palette Figure 3.5 Function Palette Figure 3.6 NI Measurement and Automation Explorer Figure 3.7 NI-MAX Window for Camera Configuration Figure 3.8 Basic LabVIEW Figure 3.9 Vision and Motion Palette Figure 3.10 Vision Utilities Figure 3.11 Vision Assistant Figure 3.12 Vision Assistant Image Acquire Figure 3.13 Image Masking Figure 3.14 Block Diagram of OCR Training Figure 3.15 Reading Characters Figure 3.16 OCR Training Window\ Figure 3.17 Steps of OCR Reading Procedure Figure 3.18 Concept of Segmentation Figure 3.19 NI EVS-1464 RT Figure 3.20 NI EVS Connectivity Figure 3.21 Basler Scout Camera Figure 3.22 Camera Connector Figure 3.23 DAQ Card NI USB-6009 2 4 9 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 15 15 17 17 20 21 22 23 23 24 26 27 28 28 29

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Figure 3.24 Rough View of Mechanical Structure Figure 3.25 Conveyor fitted with guide bits Figure 3.26 Photo of Camera Mount Figure 3.27 Camera mount AutoCAD drawing Figure 3.28 End Sorter Solid Works 3D Diagram Figure 3.29 Photo of the End Sorter during operation Figure 3.30 Power Circuit Board Diagram Figure 3.31 Power Circuit Used in Setup Figure 3.32 Arduino Uno: Front View / Back View Figure 3.33 Motor Driver Figure 4.1 NI DAQ Configuration Window Figure 4.2 Image Acquisition Session Figure 4.3 Vision Assistant Figure 4.4 Image Capture Figure 4.5 Machine Vision Pattern Matching Figure 4.6 Making a New Template Figure 4.7 Modifying the Template Figure 4.8 Pattern Matching Block Figure 4.9 Template Matching Figure 4.10 Fixing ROI from Template Figure 4.11 Pattern Matching Session Figure 4.12 OCR Read Character Set Figure 4.13 OCR Read Text Figure 4.14 OCR Session Block Diagram Figure 4.15 Front Panel of the LabVIEW VI for Post Letter Sorting Figure 4.16 Arduino Programming Environment and Compiler Figure 4.17 Program: Flow Chart representation Figure 5.1 Front View of Test VI Figure 5.2 Pie Chart representation of the result Figure AII.1 Front View of Test VI Figure AII.2 Pie Chart representation of the result

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List of Abbreviation
VAPLSS Vision Assisted Post Letter Sorting System NI National Instruments EVS Embedded Vision System DAQ Data Acquisition OCR Optical Character Recognition ROI Region Of Interest LabVIEW Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers PWM Pulse Width Modulation IR Infra Rsed PIN Postal Index Number MAX Measurements and Automation Explorer LED Light Emitting Diode DVI Digital Video Input CCD Charged Couple Device CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor