Method and apparatus for locating the boundary of an object
First Claim
1. An apparatus for automatically locating the boundary of an object in a field of view, said apparatus comprising:
- imaging means for forming an electrical image of the field of view;
means for forming a first representation of said image by segmenting said image into a plurality of pixels and digitizing the image intensity of each pixel into an electrical signal representing the greyscale value;
means for processing the electrical signal of each of said greyscale value to form a second representation of said image;
logic means for converting said second representation into a third representation whereby the value of a pixel at a location (hereinafter;
pixel (X,Y)) in the second representation and the values of the nearest adjacent neighbors of said pixel at said location are converted into a single value at said corresponding location (hereinafter;
P(X,Y)) in said third representation;
storage means for storing said third representation; and
table means for storing various possible values of P(X,Y), said table means for receiving a value of P(X,Y) and an input direction value, and for producing an output direction value to indicate the next location of P(X,Y) having a non-zero value;
said non-zero values of P(X,Y) form the boundary of said object.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for automatically locating the boundary of an object in a field of view has a raster scan device to generate an electrical image of the field of view. The electrical image is segmented and digitized to form a first representation. The image is then processed by comparing the digitized signal to a pre-set threshold to form a second representation. A converter combines each value of the pixel of the second representation with the values of the adjacent pixels into a single value and stores it in a corresponding location in a third representation. The values of the pixels in the third representation are read out and compared to a look-up table. A chain code of the boundary of the particle is formed from the look-up table.
59 Citations
16 Claims
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1. An apparatus for automatically locating the boundary of an object in a field of view, said apparatus comprising:
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imaging means for forming an electrical image of the field of view; means for forming a first representation of said image by segmenting said image into a plurality of pixels and digitizing the image intensity of each pixel into an electrical signal representing the greyscale value; means for processing the electrical signal of each of said greyscale value to form a second representation of said image; logic means for converting said second representation into a third representation whereby the value of a pixel at a location (hereinafter;
pixel (X,Y)) in the second representation and the values of the nearest adjacent neighbors of said pixel at said location are converted into a single value at said corresponding location (hereinafter;
P(X,Y)) in said third representation;storage means for storing said third representation; and table means for storing various possible values of P(X,Y), said table means for receiving a value of P(X,Y) and an input direction value, and for producing an output direction value to indicate the next location of P(X,Y) having a non-zero value;
said non-zero values of P(X,Y) form the boundary of said object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for automatically locating the boundary of an object in a field of view and filtering out noise, error and the like, said method comprising:
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forming an electrical image of said field of view in a device; reading out said image from said device to produce an electrical waveform; segmenting said electrical waveform into a plurality of electrical signals, each of said plurality of electrical signals corresponding to a pixel of said image and digitizing the amplitude of each of said signals to form a greyscale signal to form a first representation of said image; processing each greyscale signal to form a second representation of said image; converting said second representation into a third representation, whereby the information of each pixel at a location (hereinafter;
pixel (X,Y)) and the nearest adjacent neighbors of said pixel are embedded in a single value assigned to a corresponding location (hereinafter;
P(X,Y)) in the third representation;scanning said third representation until a first non-zero P(X,Y) value is reached; comparing said (P(X,Y) value and an input direction value to a look-up table to determine the next location of the non-zero value of P(X,Y) and forming a chaining code; and continuing said chaining code formation until all non-zero values of P(X,Y) have been located. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification