Template file

Turn this option on to (re-)read templates from file prior to matching. Useful e.g. if you have several sets of templates stored as files.

You can save the current template set by pressing Save.

Template/Mask

- Add and remove templates.

Note: Add will automatically perform a paste if a clipboard region is given or an image exist on the clipboard.

- Read bitmap from file

- Paste bitmap from clipboard to current template or from the template given by four clipboard points in the image - The four points must be inside the current ROI.  

Note: When the tab is active Ctrl-Z will paste from clipboard to the active template

/ - Paste square image - when depressed, pasted images are padded with masked pixels to become square. Rotated templates will then be more accurate.

Note : The template can also be taken from the resampling tab.

Template Image

  - Mask tool selector -Template size in pixels and number of masked pixels

The image menu has the following functions:

• Mask - mask at current point
• Unmask - unmask at current point
• Set center - define the origin of the template
• Reset mask - remove any pixel masking
• Invert mask - flip pixel mask
• Set measure origin - define measure starting point and activate image measurement
• Measure - activate image measurement
• Freeze - deactivate measurement
• Show info - activate cursor measurement window
• Copy shown image without graphics - copy bitmap to clipboard
• Save shown image without graphics - save bitmap to file
• Paste - paste image from clipboard
• Load from file... - activate a file browser to select bitmap
• Show details - show or hide partial template/subimage

Mouse Mask Operations:

• Ctrl + Left mouse button down - draw mask
• Shift + Left mouse button down - erase mask

Active - If unchecked the template is not used

Use partial template - use only part of the displayed image.

Note: Very useful when using polygon match refinement where the polygon use a wider area than the first step cross-correlation

View partial only - this temporarily zooms the viewed image to show the partial template defined above

Use subimage - enable a second pattern matcher on a separate ROI inside the template. Use for instance to distinguish between object that are nearly the same, except in a small region

Threshold - threshold used for the second pattern matcher

Inv - if unchecked, a match in the subimage is required for this template to generate a match; if checked, no match in the subimage is required

Center-X, Center-Y - defines the template center. Can also be set by clicking in the image

Get center of gravity / From polygon - Sets the Center-X and Center-Y values to the center-of-gravity of the selected polygon. Useful to locate the center of a circle for example, and much more accurate than manually clicking.

Angle - define the angle of the template in degrees - used to handle templates with different angles in multitemplate systems

Name - user defined name of the template - useful in classification when having multiple templates

Mouse partial template or subimage operation (when selected):

• Alt + Mouse movement to find rectangle or corner (cursor changes)
• Alt + Left drag to move corner or rectangle

Resampling

Resampled image size - tf3 always resamples the picture within the ROI, correcting for any perspective and lens calibration. This can also be used as a kind of decimation in the picture, improving the speed of the pattern matcher.

• Image size (percent of dX and dY) - sets the size (in pixels) as a percentage of the search area size (in reference coordinates) - the resulting image size is shown when performing resampling.

• Resampled image pixel size (approx) - choose this setting instead to retain the pixel size as far as possible. E.g. use 1 to have the resampled image consist of the same number of pixels as the original (within the ROI). If you use 2, the number of pixels in the resampled image will be halved in both directions. The resulting image size is currently not precomputed for this setting.

 Acquire resampled picture - copy the last inspected image into image window

Copy selection to clipboard - copy the shown (possibly zoomed)  image to the clipboard. This is the preferred method when populating templates. Switch to the Setup/Templates tab and paste the image there.

Note: original to resampled pixel ratio give an approximate value for the decimation ratio - use to verify when working with complex reference systems.

Advanced

Template Decimation - When active the template and image is decimated before matching. This speeds up the tool when the templates get big. The decimated size of a template should be at least 10 by 10 pixels.

Note: Image decimation leads to lower score values - a decimation factor of up to 5 or so will normally just speed up the template matcher - higher values can degrade detection capabilities. Be aware - the effect depends on your application and the images - it has to be investigated in each case.

Automatic settings - Calculate the decimation factor automatically based on the templates

The decimation will inevitably lead to inaccurate positioning of the matches. A second, non-decimated rematch is always performed in the vicinity of each candidate, improving accuracy and possibly eliminating false matches.

Rematch area size (percent) - the size of the rematch area is set as a percentage of the decimation factor. A low percentage speeds up the rematch, but matches may be missed. 100% means an area of +/- Factor pixels horizontally and vertically.

Template modification - use modified templates:

• Enable template rotation - the pattern matcher rotates the templates to handle rotation

  • Min angle - start rotation angle

  • Max angle - stop rotation angle

  • Angle step - rotation step angle

• Enable template scaling - the pattern matcher scales the templates to handle differences in size

  • Min size - start scale in percent

  • Max angle - stop scale in percent

  • Size step - size step

Include in match description - specify the description visualisation string

• Result order - see Sort results by

• Score - see Score calculation

• Subscore - Subimage score

• Template number - numbered from 1

• Template name - user defined template name

• Position - x,y in result coordinates

• Angle - in result coordinates

• Size - percent of template size

• Scale - percent of template size, split into x and y results (may differ if polygon match is active)

• Polygon match % - percent of polygon points that matched

Sort results by

• Score - calculated as per the score calculation percentage

  • Ascending score - smallest score first

• Strictly by X position - X position only

• Strictly by Y position - Y position only

• Grid: X, then Y position - cluster positions into rows and columns, order as rows

• Grid: Y, then X position - cluster positions into rows and columns, order as columns

  • Ascending X - smallest value first

  • Ascending Y - smallest value first

  • Grid threshold X

  • Grid threshold Y - used to cluster positions into rows and columns (in result coordinates)

Result strings

• Match centers - center positions as a Python tuple string

• Template names - user defined names (useful in e.g. OCR)

  • Name separator - separates template names 

Result modification 

• Negate angles - change sign of all angle results

• Add to angle results - fixed angle offset, all angle results

• Angle results start at - resolves angle ambiguity. If set to -180, angle results are [-180,180); if set to 0, results are in [0,360).

Include in outgoing reference system - the outgoing reference system is a reference to the first match (defined with Sort results by).

• Translation - match position

• Rotation - match rotation

• Scale - match scale

• Skew/perspective - complete transformation from the polygon match

• Individual template angle - outgoing reference reflects template angle (Note: this setting is only available for older profiles - for newer profiles this is always on)

Statistics

Template Match statistics are collected on this page to help evaluate template effiency in multiple template systems.

Polygons

Each template can have a set of polygons attached, to refine the match to a subpixel level. The polygons are drawn on the template image.

Closed polygons - default polygon behaviour. Closed means the beginning and end are connected

Template active - (de)activate template. Same as the Active checkbox under Setup/Templates.

Polygon fit active - (de)activate polygon match per template

Polygon Editor

• Numbered list ("Vector") - ordered list of polygons. Each polygon can be made active/inactive by clicking the checkbox in front of the number
• Contents - the points of the selected polygon
• New - add polygon
• Delete - remove selected polygon
• Paste new - creates a new polygon, pastes the polygon from the clipboard and presses apply  - this is the quickest way to create many polygons
• Highlight selection - highlights the selected polygon in the image
  • used to identify a polygon in the image
• Copy - copies the selected polygon to the clipboard
• Move - enabled when one or two points are clicked onto the clipboard. Will move and optionally rotate the selected polygon. Rotation is done when two points are on clipboard, and the first two points in the polygon will be aligned with this.
• Paste - pastes the clipboard to the selected polygon - will overwrite an existing polygon
  • Copy can be used to transfer polygon to the image for editing and modification. The edited polygon is pasted back to the tool using Paste. More on Point and Click Operations

Additional "Vector" Right-click menu

• Custom... - set individual traceline settings. This will be indicated by the number in red - very useful when working with multiple polygons to locate different types of edges.
• Set defaults - remove custom settings
• Up - move vector up in list
• Down - move vector down in list
• Grid - add a regular grid of rectangles to polygon list
• Delete all - remove all polygons
• Delete empty vectors - remove empty (and useless) polygons