Hi, I've experimented a bit with the scanin tool for reading characterisation targets. As the use targeted case here involves digital cameras (still & video) the capturing of the target is not as trivial as for e. g. scanners. Of course, the image needs to be captured in a way that no specularities or any kind of glare is present on the target. This can be achieved by either changing the positioning of the camera, the illumination or the target. For many cases however the characterisation is to be performed in the geometric conditions as given by a fixed setup in a fixed location (towards windows, lamps, etc.). So the only way to remove glare is to move or tilt the target relative to the camera. Doing this I have discovered the following, which is not an issue for scanners as input devices. The scanin tool seems to be relatively robust towards pure rotation and (uneven) scaling as long as it is along the target's axes. For testing I've created a few test samples. These are the problematic circumstances: * perspective distortion * pin cushion type distortion * rotation with uneven scaling (or scaling along a non-main axis of the target) The issue is now, that any image distortion that leads to a non-rectangular shape of the target potentially endangers the characterisation, as pixels outside the patches (or belonging to other patches) will be evaluated. This means that the target MUST remain orthogonal towards the visual axis of the camera, with only limited pin cushion distortion of the optical system. Any clues on solving this problem either in software or in handling the test setups? If bad comes to worse I've got to dig deeply into the OpenCV tricks box and try to undo certain distortions of the image before the characterisation process. However, I'd rather like to avoid that to not induce a higher error than necessary. Guy -- Guy K. Kloss Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences Te Kura Putaiao o Mohiohio me Pangarau Room 2.63, Quad Block A Building Massey University, Auckland, Albany Private Bag 102 904, North Shore Mail Centre voice: +64 9 414-0800 ext. 9585 fax: +64 9 441-8181 eMail: G.Kloss@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.massey.ac.nz/~gkloss/