Rapid image categorization

• US 20110026816A1
• Filed: 07/29/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Vaughn, Robert L.
• Application Number:
  US12/462,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20110026816A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/421 by analysing segments intersecting the pattern
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/758 Involving statistics of pixels or of feature values, e.g. histogram matching

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method comprising: acquiring an image; digitizing the image; selecting one or more rows from a portion of the image; performing a line scan of the selected rows; retrieving a reference scan; comparing the line scan with the reference scan; identifying a feature; and categorizing the image.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

acquiring an image;

digitizing said image;

selecting a row from a portion of said image;

performing a line scan of said row;

retrieving a reference scan;

comparing said line scan with said reference scan;

identifying a feature; and

categorizing said image.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said row is selected from an uppermost quartile of said image.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said row is selected from a lowermost quartile of said image.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said image comprises color and said row comprises pixels.

5. The method of claim 4 further showing RGB value of each pixel as a function of position in said row.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying said feature involves applying a rule.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said rule is derived from experiment.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein said rule is derived from modeling.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein said rule is derived from simulation.

10. A method comprising:

selecting a portion of an image;

selecting a value for a parameter to describe said portion of said image; and

identifying a feature in said image.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said portion comprises a row in an uppermost quartile.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein said portion comprises a row in a lowermost quartile.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein a user selects said portion of said image.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein a user selects said value for said parameter.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein a user selects said feature in said image.

16. An apparatus comprising:

an image acquisition module that acquires an image;

;

a image digitizer module that digitizes said image.

a row sampler module that selects rows from different portions of said image;

a line scan module that performs a line scan along said rows;

a library module that retrieves reference scans;

a scan comparer module that compares said line scan with said reference scans;

a feature identifier module that isolates a feature traversed by said line scan; and

a feature categorizer module that promotes rapid categorization of said image.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising:

a graphical user interface.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a machine readable medium that includes rules.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 further including a means to learn from previous line scans to identify features in future line scans.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said means includes an artificial intelligence module.