Electronics and Communications in Japan, Part 2, Vol. 87, No.

12, 2004
Translated from Denshi Joho Tsushin Gakkai Ronbunshi, Vol. J84-D-II, No. 6, June 2001, pp. 1073–1083

Development of a Container Identification Mark

Recognition System

Shintaro Kumano,1 Kazumasa Miyamoto,1 Mitsuaki Tamagawa,1 Hiroaki Ikeda,2 and Koji Kan3

1
Takasago Research and Development Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Takasago, 676-8686 Japan
2
Hiroshima Research and Development Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mihara, 729-0393 Japan
3
Kobe Shipyard and Machinery Works, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Kobe, 652-8585 Japan

SUMMARY Key words: character recognition; low quality

This paper reports the development of a container
identification mark or number recognition system designed
for application to a container terminal. The recognition
system recognizes the number or mark on the back surface
of a container in an outdoor environment by photographing
the mark by a camera system installed on the container gate.
Containers in many cases differ in color as well as in layout
depending on their owners; the layouts commonly contain
one to four horizontal columns or rows of writing or more
rarely vertical rows of writing. The container number rec-
ognition system is constructed from an illumination inten-
sity sensor and illumination system for handling the
outdoor illumination changes, a shutter speed control de-
vice, and devices such as filters for handling various con-
tainer colors. In addition, the proposed system uses a
character recognition scheme based on a dynamic design
method for recognizing differing character string layouts in
container marks or numbers. Field tests have been con-
ducted to obtain a recognition rate of 92.8% for all data, a
recognition rate of 97.9% for effective or appropriate data
excluding data outside the field of vision, and an average
recognition speed of less than 2 seconds. © 2004 Wiley
Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 87(12): 38–50,
2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.
interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.20134
characters; weighted directional index histograms; dy-
namic designing; container number reading.
1. Introduction
In recent years, the amount of containers transported
has increased with the trends of increasing sizes of ships
and decreasing transportation costs and charges. In addi-
tion, with increasing participation of developing countries
in container services, competition among individual con-
tainer terminals has also increased as well as the urgency of
the need to meet the new requirements of equipment, per-
sonnel, and the like. Constructing comprehensive auto-
mated and simplified systems is needed to increase the
efficiency and productivity of systems established to oper-
ate 24 hours daily for 365 days in such circumstances [1].
Targets of improvement for container terminals en-
compass a wide range that includes unloading containers,
transporting containers inside a yard, and managing con-
tainer contents. Container numbers are commonly used in
these systems and automatic recognition techniques for
container numbers are considered to constitute the nucleus
of automated systems for container terminals. As the first
step in realizing the container number recognition tech-
niques based on such analyses, container number recogni-
tion devices for container gates have been developed. A

© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

38
container number recognition device can automate as well 2. System Configuration
as simplify and shorten manual work in recognizing con-
tainer numbers, which gate clerks have performed until
now. 2.1. Container number
The conventional container automatic recognition
methods are classified broadly into methods of reading A container number (Fig. 1) usually consists of a
numbers optically [3–5] and methods using ID tags [2]. four-character owner code (English) and six numbers,
Although the methods using ID tags are superior from the along with a single check digit (frame number). The fourth
point of view of recognition accuracy, they cannot be of the four English characters of the owner code is “U” and
widely used due to the cost associated with ID tags installed the remaining three characters are assigned to an owner of
on all containers. On the other hand, recognition methods each country. There are over 1000 owner codes; the Inter-
national Container Bureau registers and manages them [6].
based on optical imaging of container numbers cannot
Standards ISO6346 and JIS Z 1615 specify the sizes and
achieve an accuracy commensurate with that of the ID tag
content of the characters.
methods due to such effects as contamination or scratching
Although the container number is written on the top,
of container numbers. However, optical recognition meth-
side, front, and back surfaces of a container, the proposed
ods can be implemented by improving automation speed
device aims to recognize container numbers written on the
and depending on human judgment in unreadable cases.
back surface of a container. This is done for the following
For the recognition of English characters and num-
reasons.
bers in outdoor environments, methods of recognizing ve-
hicle numbers and the like in addition to container numbers
(1) The results of a field survey reveal that the char-
have been researched and developed in Japan and abroad
acter part deteriorates most severely on the upper surface
[9–11]. A survey of character recognition techniques and due to soiling and scratches caused by piling up of contain-
the character recognition contest held under the sponsor- ers, and deteriorates least on the back surface of a container.
ship of the Postal Ministry summarized the concepts of (2) In photographing a container at a container gate,
effective methods [7]. The authors of this paper participated it is easier to photograph a character string within the field
in the character recognition contest mentioned above and of vision on the back surface of a container than that on the
have developed techniques for recognizing low-quality side, due to camera and object relations.
characters in Japanese and Singaporean vehicle numbers (3) There are convex and concave surfaces (corruga-
[12–14]. tions) on the side surfaces of a container, and the brightness
However, in realizing container number recognition of a character string on a convex surface differs greatly from
devices, not only recognizing single characters but also that of a character sequence on a concave surface.
studying the steps preceding recognition are important. For
example, many problems that must be resolved before The camera device is assumed to be installed on a
applying these devices to character recognition processing container gate and used under outdoor conditions. In addi-
exist, such as photographing techniques for obtaining better tion, the device has a configuration that allows the photo-
contrast of characters in various color combinations, such graphing of moving containers and of containers differing
as red characters on a white background, or white characters in length (20 feet, 40 feet) with the same camera. Figure 2
on a brown background, under changing daylight condi- shows the camera system layout. The proposed techniques
tions due to time or weather in outdoor environments,
techniques for extracting character strings to be recognized
such as one to four horizontal rows of writing or vertical
writing in character string layouts from characters on ob-
jects other than recognition targets.
The authors have previously developed a container
number recognition device based on combining high-accu-
racy recognition of low-quality characters by software and
clear photography by hardware. This paper explains the
software configuration and the fundamentals of the device
in Section 2, and image processing and software processing
of character recognition in Section 3. It also presents the
results of testing the device in a real container yard, and
evaluates the efficacy of the device in Section 4. Section 5
presents conclusions and future tasks. Fig. 1. Examples of container ID mark.

39

Fig. 2. Camera system layout.
have been evaluated by recognizing containers with hori-
zontal writing, which are more frequently encountered, and
in some cases, parts of the vertically written containers were
outside the field of vision of the camera. The latter cases
may be handled by using a high resolution camera.
2.2. Camera system
The functions needed to obtain good photographic
images using the camera layout shown in Fig. 2 are pre-
sented below (Fig. 3 shows a configuration having these
functions).
(1) A camera trigger sensor detecting whether a mov-
ing container has passed a specific location and a camera
capable of photographing by an external trigger
Fig. 3. Container ID mark recognition system.
40
(2) A light intensity sensor for measuring the bright-
ness in outdoor environments
(3) A camera that takes the entirety of a container
number string into its field of vision, having the capability
of decomposing an image of a container character width (10
mm) within its set field of vision
(4) An illuminating device for use when outdoor
environments become dark (below 1000 lux)
(5) A shutter speed control device that controls the
brightness of an image corresponding to changes in outdoor
light intensity
(6) A filter that is optimal for handling combinations
of container colors and character colors handled by a con-
tainer terminal
(7) A photographic control device for controlling the
entire camera system sequentially
2.3. Evaluations of the device
The character area on the back surface of a container
measures 1.6 m × 1.2 m. The character width of a container
number is 10 mm at the minimum, the character interval is
5 mm, and a resolution of 2.5 mm pixel is required in order
to quantize 5 mm with a minimum of 2 pixels. Based on
this fact, a camera with a VGA monochrome capability
having a size of 640 × 480 pixels is used. We selected the
IK-542 (Toshiba), which is capable of controlling 8.94 µs
of marking up to 10 µs to 16 ms by external signals. A
monochrome camera and optimal filter are combined in
order to reduce the cost of a color camera.
An optimal filter has been selected from the point of
view of maximizing the contrast of camera images for
combinations of actually existing container colors and char-
acter colors. Figure 4 shows evaluation results of G and R
filters among the luminescence evaluation results obtained
Fig. 4. Filtering results for various color combinations.
 Table 1. Image capture conditions
Vision field range
Resolution strength
Number of pixels
Camera lens focusing dis-
tance
Photographing distance
Constriction
Lens resolution strength
Photographed field depth
Shutter time due to image
flow of moving object
Filter
Illuminating device
Camera trigger sensor
1.6 m (horizontal) × 1.2 m
(vertical)
2.5 mm (horizontal) × 2.5
mm (vertical)
640 × 480
35 mm
8.167 m
F4 fixed
over 50% at 25 lines/mm
7.12–9.58 m
allowed up to the fading
amount of 1/2 pixel (5 µm)
with constriction of F4
less than 1/326 second
flow of 1 pixel at moving
rate of 30 km/h allowed
G
average light intensity of
1400 lux (light with less
than 1000 lux of
environmental illumination)
less than 2 m of distance set
before target

by using RGB filters for combinations of various typical

container colors. The bar graphs in the figure show the
differences in luminescence between the characters and
background parts; the contrast is expressed by the length.
The above color combinations can handle colors other than
brown-black and red-black with a G filter, and combina-
tions of brown-black and red-black can achieve the contrast
(32 luminescence grades) targeted by an R filter. This study
uses a G filter, considering the frequencies of occurrence of
colors. A future study will process multiple images sequen-
tially by using combinations of two filters and two cameras.
Table 1 shows the conditions of the camera system
established in this study.
3. Container Mark Recognition Scheme
3.1. Overall processing configuration
Figure 5 shows an example of a container identifica-
tion mark. As can be seen from this figure, in addition to
characters that are recognition objects, a locking bar (me-
tallic), images of convex and concave parts of the back
Fig. 5. Variations of container ID mark.
surface, and characters associated with the country name
and weight coexist in the image. Furthermore, the character
strings are not limited to specific locations and the writing
patterns are also varied, such as one to four horizontal rows,
and one vertical row. There are also cases in which charac-
ters are bright or dark against the background, and the
character sizes and intervals vary.
This study also investigates the process up to deter-
mining the character string ranges as part of the character
recognition method. Although the general process up to the
determination of the character string range in the past has
consisted of the binarization and projection of an image
without character recognition, this study infers information
on the sizes and layouts of characters, and information on
the brightness relationship between characters and back-
ground by detecting the character “U,” which is necessarily

41
included in a character string. In addition, even if “U” is not
found due to deterioration or cutting of a container, the
location of a character string is estimated by a conventional
method based on correlations [12] and the characters are
interpreted as the container identification number by the
subsequent character recognition process.
Since the conventional assumption of “one label, one
character” does not necessarily hold even in the recognition
process after the extraction of a character string, a method
of recognizing characters and cut characters simultaneously
by dynamic design methods [15, 16, 18], involving address
recognition and a subsequent English recognition system,
is used. Furthermore, since the recognition result for each
character is influenced by the quality of the binarized
image, the scheme (multiplexed binary image recognition
method) of choosing the most likely characters (based on
the values obtained by subtracting a constant from the
distances from the dictionary characters) is introduced.
Differences in the individual elements of a container
identification number are also investigated. By using a
voting scheme based on a dictionary of owner codes pre-
pared in advance to identify the character string in the
dictionary to which a character string corresponds [21],
owner codes not in the dictionary are not taken as solutions
in recognizing the four English characters representing an
owner. In many cases, the final number (check digit) is
written within the frame line, and the frame line influences
character recognition. Thus, character recognition is per-
formed by always including a process of eliminating the
frame.
Figure 6 shows the entire configuration of the proc-
ess.

3.2. Character sequence extraction

An outline of the procedure of character string extrac-

tion is as follows.

(1) Find and recognize “U” for a multiplexed binary
image obtained by using multiple binary thresholds.
(2) Tighten the variability conditions of the directions
and numbers of character strings of a container number by
finding and recognizing “U” as a basis for estimating the
brightness relationship between the characters and back-
ground and the character sizes .
(3) If “U” is not found due to deterioration of a
container, avoid imposing excessive requirements on the
quality of the “U” part by performing character string
candidate extraction [12] on the basis of correlations, which
has been conventionally used for cut-out vehicle number
areas.
The contents of the process are explained in detail
below.
Fig. 6. Image processing and ID mark recognition flow.
3.2.1. Switching presumed conditions of
process
It is assumed that the presumed conditions of the
process can be switched in response to the frequencies of
occurrence of the kinds of containers at a container gate.
This paper presumes the case of a dark character part
against a background. The process is repeated after switch-
ing the presumed condition to the case of a bright character
part if applying the presumption does not yield a solution
having high matchability.

42
 3.2.2. Image processing for extracting
character string
A morphology filter [23] having a kernel with a
horizontal length of (80 × 1) is used to eliminate long
components (such as metallic devices on the upper part of
a container) in the horizontal direction and to perform
binarization. The result of applying a morphology filter
having a kernel with a vertical length of (64 × 1) to eliminate
long components (e.g., metallic locking bar) is similarly
binarized. Finally, the theoretical products of these are
taken. Three different binarized thresholds, 15, 30, and 45,
are simultaneously generated at 256 gradations, an image
processed with a threshold value of 30 is subsequently
processed, and images processed with threshold values of
15 and 45 are used if the above image fails.
3.2.3. Character “U” search
After labeling the image of Section 3.2.2, eliminating
large labels (in surface area, width, and height), and merg-
ing labels, the features (48 dimensions) of weighted direc-
tional index histograms [19] are generated and recognition
is performed by the pseudo-Mahalanobis distance method.
The condition for finding “U” corresponds to a label with
a distance from the character “U” template that is less than
some reference value. When multiple candidates meeting
this condition exist, those located in the upper part have
higher priorities than those in the lower part, those located
to the right have higher priorities than those located to the
left, and the next candidate is selected if the subsequent
processing fails.
3.2.4. Character area estimation
From the “U” labels selected in Section 3.2.3, the
sizes of the labels taken as subsequent character candidates
are limited. The upper and lower limits of the “U” label
height are set, and only the upper limit of the width (the
lower limit is not set since the width of “1” is narrow) is set.
For all labels in which the horizontal central coordinate is
within a specific range from the horizontal central coordi-
nate of the “U” label, vertical writing is inferred if the height
sum exceeds some level, and horizontal writing is inferred
otherwise. When horizontal writing is inferred, whether a
label of the size within a standard range exists to the left,
right, or low side of the label is checked sequentially and
the character area is determined. In this case, other charac-
ters are then processed for character string recognition.
When vertical writing is inferred, the character string area
is determined by checking the label in the upward–down-
ward direction, assuming a string in the vertical direction.
43
3.3. Character elimination and character
recognition
The characteristics of the scheme for character rec-
ognition by character elimination are as follows.
(1) A dynamic design method that can simultane-
ously evaluate optimal character label selection and char-
acter recognition is used.
(2) The check digit is used to perform re-recognition
after mandatory frame operations.
(3) The owner code receiving the most votes in the
dictionary voting scheme is selected.
(4) Recognition is performed by using multiplexed
binarized images in order to improve low-quality character
recognition accuracy. For the final character, the result of
recognition after frame processing is integrated.
3.3.1. Character recognition processing
Character recognition uses weighted directional in-
dex histograms (4 directions, 48 dimensions) as features
and the recognition scheme uses a pseudo-Mahalanobis
distance method [19]. As English and number data used in
constructing recognition templates, about 10,000 Sin-
gaporean vehicle number data photographed previously by
the authors (with maximum variations of about 10 times in
the number of items for each kind of character) and about
1000 items of data photographed in a container yard were
used.
3.3.2. Character string recognition by
dynamic designing
As the character label coordinate system, the horizon-
tal coordinate is assumed to increase from left to right and
the vertical coordinate from top to bottom. In the case of
horizontal writing, numbering is done from left to right
corresponding to the bottom left coordinate of the label. In
the case of multiple steps, labeling is performed succes-
sively on the sequential numbers of a character string by
adding a certain offset value extending over the steps. In the
case of vertical writing, the numbers are given from top to
bottom from the label upper position. The case of horizontal
labeling is discussed below. Let the initial label number
constituting the i-th character be j(i) and the final label
number be k(i). k(i) ≥ j(i) and j(i) > k(i – 1). The total
character string recognition evaluation value is

(1)
Here, l(i, j(i), k(i)) is the character likelihood of the image
obtained by merging the labels from j(i) to k(i) as the i-th
character (the value obtained under the assumption that the
character likelihood increases as the values obtained by
subtracting a constant value from the calculated distances
from English characters for 1 ≤ i ≤ 3, “U” for i = 4, and
numbers for 5 ≤ i ≤ 11 increase). Label merging is done over
the character recognition process by treating a set of multi-
ple unconnected labels as one label, and the image thus
obtained is called a merged image. The character likelihood
is obtained from a multiplexed binary image by selecting
the minimum value of the distance values of the recognition
results using binary images and subtracting a constant from
it.
g(i, k(i – 1), j(i)) is the space or gap likelihood
between the (i – 1)-th character and the i-th character as an
example. This value is assigned a constant positive value
within a certain range and a negative penalty point outside
that range. Although this procedure is meaningless when i
= 1, we let g = 0 in order to combine the addition range with
other terms. Furthermore, h(i, k(i – 1) + 1, j(i) – 1) is the
character unlikelihood of the image obtained by merging
multiple labels existing in the space between the (i – 1)-th
character and the i-th character into one; it is the evaluation
value for avoiding skipping a character. Specifically, as an
example, let
(2)
and subtract the label character likelihood portion of the gap
or space. When k(i – 1) + 1 ≥ j(i), let h = 0. In addition, for
i = 1 as with g, let h = 0.
The selection of the m-th optimal character label is
recursively
(3)
(4)
44
Here, let L(0, j(0), m(0)) = 0. We solve this recursive
relationship equation by the dynamic design method.
The method of estimating the owner code by voting
[representing the i-th character by C(i)] takes the owner
code yielding the maximum value of the voted character
recognition results as the estimation result. Specifically, if
the upper n character recognition results of the i-th character
and the corresponding character likelihood evaluation val-
ues are represented by R1(i), R2(i), . . . , Rn(i) and V1(i),
V2(i), . . . , Vn(i), then
where
The owner code C for which E(C) becomes a maximum is
the recognition result. This amounts to a simplified version
of the “Ambiguous Term Search” [21] used in recognizing
such items as geographical names.
3.3.3. Frame processing
The frame operation is performed only when a
merged image is recognized as the check digit. The contents
of frame processing are explained for the example of a
merged image with the left frame line eliminated. Let the
values after binarizing the character and the frame line be
1, the value of the background be 0, and the vertical (Y) and
horizontal (X) directional coordinate ranges of the merged
image be Y0 ≤ Y ≤ YM and X0 ≤ X ≤ XN. The merged image
is searched from the left edge (X0) to the right, and the
position X that has changed from the character part to the
background part (from 1 to 0) is obtained. Let the position
X for height direction Y be X(Y), take the histograms of X(Y)
for all Y = Y0, Y1, . . . , YM, and let their most frequent value
be Xs. The left edge of the image is made to be 0 from X0 to
Xs. Perform a similar procedure on the right, upper, and
lower sides of the merged image. Figure 7 shows a concep-
tual diagram of the frame process.
3.3.4. Reliability evaluation of recognition
result
The “unclear” determination is performed in two
steps. The “unclear” determination for one character is
made if l(C2) ÷ l(C1) > r, letting the character likelihood of
the character kind that usually takes the first place (C1) be
l(C1) and the character likelihood of the character kind that
usually takes the second place (C2) be l(C2). r is the
“unclear” threshold, for which 0.9 etc. is used. The “un-
 Table 2. Processing devices
Image processing MHI manufactured board [22]
(A/D board)
Number recognition OS: FreeBSD, CPU: PentiumII
device (PC)
333 MHz, memory: 128 Mbyte
Camera Toshiba manufactured CCD
camera IK-542
Camera trigger sensor Hokuyo Denki manufactured
PD1

ducted from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm for five clear days. The

Fig. 7. Box elimination process. illumination devices shown in the configuration of the
recognition device in Fig. 3 were omitted in the device used
for the field tests. In addition, filter G was used. Table 2
clear” determination of a character string is made when the
shows the devices used.
evaluation value of Eq. (3) based on dynamic designing is
Six hundred one data items were obtained in 5 days.
less than a reference value. In the proposed device, in order
Table 3 shows the contents of the combinations of the
to reduce as much as possible both the erroneous recogni-
character and background colors.
tion and the “unclear” determination of the low-quality
Table 4 presents the recognition results. The table
characters, the unclear threshold r is defined separately for
shows the cases in which all container marks of 11 charac-
the character kinds C1 and C2. Specifically, r, which is not
ters were recognized correctly as “correct” cases, and the
dependent on the kinds of characters, is extended to rC1,C2,
cases in which even one character is unclear or erroneous
which can be defined for combinations of kinds of charac-
as incorrect cases. “One unclear character” indicates cases
ters that are determined to be close to the recognition result,
in which all characters other than the unclear character are
and “unclear” is determined if l(C2) ÷ l(C1) > rC1,C2. This
is because the degree of danger of error of each kind of
character due to the similarity with another character is
assumed to differ, and the value of rC1,C is determined from
Table 3. Color combinations of ID mark and
the results of identifying learning data so as to minimize the
background
number of erroneous recognition × 10 + the number of
“unclear” characters [8]. Color of Color of
Number of items (%)
Regarding the check digit, theoretically, it can be character background
consistently obtained from 10 characters other than the
black white 283 (47.1%)
check digit. If the 11th character recognition result does not
black gray 116 (19.3%)
coincide with the check digit number, determined consis-
tently from the other 10 characters, the entire character black red 2 (0.3%)
string is clearly not correct, and the character string can be yellow brown 11 (1.8%)
determined to be unclear. However, in order to evaluate the white brown 113 (18.8%)
performance of character recognition by eliminating the white red 38 (6.3%)
effect of knowledge processing, this paper has output non- white green (2.2%)
13
coinciding cases unaltered, without using the rules regard-
white blue 6 (1.0%)
ing the check digit.
blue red 6 (1.0%)
dark blue white 8 (1.3%)
4. Test Results black and green 1 (0.2%)
white
4.1. Recognition result black brown and 1 (0.2%)
white
Field tests were conducted using the proposed recog-
Total 601 (100.0%)
nition device, installed at a real pier. The tests were con-

45
 Table 4. Recognition results for whole images Table 5. Recognition results for appropriate
images
Recognition result Number of items (%)
Correct solution 558 (92.8%) Recognition result Number of items (%)
One character unclear 9 (1.5%) Correct solution 550 (97.9%)
All characters unclear 21 (3.5%) 1 character unclear 7 (1.2%)
Erroneous recognition 13 (2.2%) All characters unclear 1 (0.2%)
Total 601 (100.0%) Erroneous recognition 4 (0.7%)
Total 562 (100.0%)

correct. Specifically, even a case containing an “unclear”

character that contains an error in one place is counted as a
case of “erroneous recognition.” An example is a case of “1
2 3 4 5,” of which “3” cannot be recognized due to deterio-
ration and is recognized as noise, and which is recognized
as “1 2 4 5 ?” with a separate mark inserted after “5.” In this
case, the third and fourth places are erroneously recognized.
There were 5 such cases among the 13 cases of “erroneous
recognition.” Twelve cases can be determined to be “un-
clear” cases if the rules of the check digit, which were not
used in the tests, are used. Furthermore, there were no
partially unclear cases containing more than two unclear
characters.
Some of the data items included character strings that
were outside the field of vision, vertically written charac-
ters, which have been excluded from this study, and black
character–red background and blue character–red back-
ground combinations, which could not be photographed
with good contrast because an R filter was not used. The
data also contained scratched or contaminated characters
that could not be read by humans, and containers other than
those studied here. The accuracy was also evaluated for
effective or appropriate data, excluding the data obtained
under conditions other than those studied here. Table 5
shows the results.
Table 6 shows the contents of the data other than the
appropriate or effective data and the results of recognition
of this data.
Figure 8 shows an example of a container image
correctly recognized by the device presented in this study.
Figure 9 is an example of a container image showing
poor contrast, among the images of inappropriate data.
Figure 10 is an example of a tank container image elimi-
nated as an inappropriate image. Figure 11 shows the origi-
nal image and the processed image incorrectly recognized
among the appropriate data.
The recognition time is less than about 2 seconds on
the average with the configuration of the devices used in the
field tests (Table 2).

Table 6. Inappropriate image descriptions

Recognition result
Contents of data Correct 1 character All characters Erroneous Total (%)
solution unclear unclear recognition
Poor contrast 0 0 7 0 7 (1.2%)
Outside the vision field
Vertical writing 0 0 1 0 1 (0.2%)
Tank container 0 0 1 0 1 (0.2%)
Others that are outside the vision field 1 1 4 1 7 (1.1%)
Outside the vision field total 1 1 6 1 9 (1.5%)
Poor character
Scratching or contamination 6 1 3 7 17 (2.8%)
Hidden due to metallic parts 1 0 2 1 4 (0.7%)
1 character bright–dark reversion 0 0 1 0 1 (0.2%)
Handwritten character 0 0 1 0 1 (0.2%)
Lost character total 7 1 7 8 23 (3.8%)

46
 Fig. 10. Tank container removed as inappropriate image.

Fig. 8. Container image correctly recognized.

4.2. Discussion
The field test results reveal a recognition accuracy of
92.8% for all data and 97.9% for appropriate data. Although
this accuracy is sufficiently high as a field accuracy for
container mark recognition, further study of unmanned
operation of the system on a gate is needed.
The fact that erroneous recognition reaches several
percent for inappropriate data is considered an impediment
to automation of the recognition process. In addition, the
field tests may not apply to evaluations in an arbitrary
outdoor environment, since they were conducted on clear
days. The kinds of containers handled by container gates
are unevenly distributed, and tests must be performed under
more varied conditions.
Table 7 summarizes the problems associated with
causes of erroneous recognition and solutions to these
problems.

Fig. 9. Container image removed as inappropriate

image. Fig. 11. Container image incorrectly recognized.

47
 Table 7. Problems and solutions cause of erroneous recognition is that binarized image
labels containing images other than characters (e.g.,
Problem Causes Solutions
shadow of a metal rod, part of the frame of a check digit)
Erroneous recog- Erroneous Character layout when converted into character recognition features are
nition of recognition as “1” (positional close to items in the dictionary [1]. In recognizing a low-
scratched charac- by binarizing the relations with quality character string in outdoor environments, character
ter image strokes of neighboring recognition is performed to determine which label is a
metal parts (in characters) and character before identifying the kind of character, and the
many cases, background label with the shortest distance to a dictionary item is used
vertical rods) in luminescence as the character label. In doing so, however, there is a major
multiplexed check problem of noncharacter noise that influences whether a
binary image character is “1” or “I.” Thus, even if characters with signifi-
recognition cant deterioration are ignored as noncharacters, interpreta-
Displacements Determining a Check the layout tions that match the required number of places may be
due to a character deteriorated of each place of allowed. In order to resolve this problem, layout interpre-
unrecognized as a character as a recognized tation of the position of each character or a determination
character noncharacter and character string of whether the character size or width and the character
recognizing the luminescence and background luminescence relationships
subsequent match those of other characters will be necessary.
character string In the near future, the authors plan to enhance the
with applicability of their container mark recognition device by
displacements addressing the above points and conducting tests including
illumination conditions and filters that were omitted in this
study.

5. Conclusions
An automatic container mark recognition device has
been developed for implementation in container terminals.
The recognition device recognizes a mark on a container by
photographing the back surface of the container in outdoor
environments with a camera device installed on the con-
tainer gate. The camera system has been designed to absorb
the effects of changes in the intensity of illumination due to
sunlight and variations in the colors of containers and
characters. In addition, a recognition scheme for a multi-
plexed binarized image with a focus on a dynamic design
method has been developed in order to handle variations in
the layouts and locations of container mark character
strings and degradation in characters due to scratches or
contamination.
Evaluation of the performance of the device pre-
sented by conducting field tests in a container terminal
yielded a recognition rate of 92.8% for all data photo-
graphed in a period of 5 days. Data excluding exceptional
data and scratched or contaminated data that cannot be read
by humans is taken as appropriate data. The recognition rate
was 97.9% and the erroneous recognition rate was 0.7% for
the appropriate data.
Although this recognition rate is high for field tests,
further study is needed in order to reduce erroneous con-
tainer recognition at an unmanned container gate. A major
REFERENCES
1. Ministry of Transportation. 1999 Transportation
White Paper—New Developments in Urban Trans-
portation Policies for the 21st Century, p 374–384.
2. http://www.samsys.com/art-8-1996.html
3. Lee C, Kankanhalli A. Automatic extraction of char-
acters in complex scine images. Int J Pattern Recog-
nition Artif Intell 1995;9:67–82.
4. Fos first out of the gate. Cargo Systems, p 446–447,
July 1994.
5. Hamada H, Ikeya N, Ito K. Development of automat-
ic container mark recognition system. Japanese Me-
chanical Engineering Society 73rd Regular Meeting
Lectures and Papers (IV), p 362–363, 1996.
6. Watanabe I. Containers and international regulations.
Kowan, August Issue, p 9–14, 1995.
7. Tsutsumida T, Kido T, Ota K, Kimura F, Iwata A.
New developments in the study of character recogni-
tion. Current status of handwritten number recogni-
tion in postal number data. Tech Rep IEICE
1997;PRU96-190.
8. Matsui T, Yamashita I, Wakahara A, Yoshimuro M.
The First Character Recognition Technology Contest
Results. Symposium Lectures and Papers, p 15–22,
1993.

48
 9. Fujimoto K, Horino M, Fujikawa Y. Number plate
reading device based on real time image processing.
Omron Technics 1990;30:9–18.
10. Kato H, Nanbu M, Fukui H, Yorita F, Aoki M. Num-
ber plate recognition technology. Mitsubishi Denki
Giho 1988;62:9–12.
11. Iida Y, Nakayama H, Miyamoto K, Fujita K, Urata H.
Development of high-speed image processing device
and its applications. Mitsubishi Juko Giho
1990;27:76–80.
12. Miyamoto K, Tamagawa M, Fujita K, Hayama Y,
Ayaho S. Character string region detection scheme
based on correlations. Trans IEICE 1998;J81-D-
II:2052–2060.
13. Miyamoto K, Kumano S, Sugimoto K, Tamagawa M,
Ayaho S. Recognition scheme for low quality char-
acters using multiple features. Trans IEICE
1999;J82-D-II:771–779.
14. Miyamoto K, Kumano S, Tamagawa M, Sugimoto K,
Urata H. Development of character recognition tech-
nology in transportation and shipping industries. Mit-
subishi Juko Giho 1996;33:404–407.
15. Kimura F, Tsuruoka S, Shridhar M, Chen Z. Context
directed handwritten word recognition for postal
service applications. Proc Fifth Advanced Technol-
ogy Conference, p 199–213, Washington, DC, 1992.
16. Burges CJC, Ben JI, Denker JS, Lecun Y, Nohl CR.
Off line recognition of handwritten postal words
using neural networks. Int J Pattern Recognition Artif
Intell 1993;7:689–704.
17. Sakaguchi M. Dynamic designing methods.
Shibundo; 1968.
18. Miyamoto K. A study on number plate recognition.
Thesis, University of Kyoto, 2000.
19. Harata T, Tsuruoka N, Kimura F, Miyake K. Hand-
written Chinese and Japanese character recognition
using weighted directional index histograms and
pseudobase identification method. Tech Rep IEICE
1984;PRL83-68.
20. Hagita N, Naito S, Masuda I. Identification of hand-
written Chinese characters by contour direction con-
tribution feature. Trans IEICE 1983;J66-D:
1185–1192.
21. Nakabayashi K, Kitamura M, Kawaoka T. High-
speed frame-less handwritten character reading
scheme using ambiguous term search. Trans IEICE
1991;J74-D-II:1528–1537.
22. Tsutsuminaka T, Mimochi K. Real-time dynamic
image processing device. 4th Image Sensing Sympo-
sium Lectures and Papers, 1998.
23. Obata H. Morphology. Corona Press; 1996.

AUTHORS (from left to right)

Shintaro Kumano (member) received his B.S. degree from the Department of Computer Science, University of Tokyo,
in 1985 and joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. His research interests include pattern recognition signal processing. He
received an M.S. degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992. He is currently a technical leader at the Takasago Research
and Development Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. He is a member of the Japan Society for Nuclear Energy.

Kazumasa Miyamoto (member) received his M.S. degree from the Department of Computer Engineering, University
of Kyoto, in 1974 and joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. He was affiliated with the Hiroshima Research Laboratory. He
has investigated image processing, pattern recognition, and signal processing at the System Technology Development Center
(Kobe), Technology Headquarters. He received a D.Eng. degree from the University of Kyoto in 1999. He is currently a leader
at the Takasago Research and Development Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. He received a 1991 Kobe City Technology
Contributor Award and 1995 Defense Technology Inventor Award.

49
 AUTHORS (continued) (from left to right)

Mitsuaki Tamagawa received his M.S. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Waseda University and
joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. He has been engaged in research and development on image processing and pattern
recognition. He is currently a technical leader at the Technical Laboratory, Takasago Research and Development Center. He is
a member of the Image Information Media Society.

Hiroaki Ikeda received his B.S. degree from the Department of Precision Engineering, University of Hiroshima, in 1975
and joined Konica (Ltd.). He moved to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. in 1990. His research interests include laser sensors
and other optical applications. He is currently a research leader in the Printing Machines Research Laboratory, Hiroshima
Research Center. He is a member of the Applied Physics Society.

Koji Kan received his M.S. degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Osaka Prefectural University, in 1988
and joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. He has worked on the design of electrical devices for ships and other marine
machinery. He is currently a leader at the Electrical Equipment Control Designing and Planning Department, Ships and Seas
Division, Kobe Shipyard and Machinery Works.

50