Real time implementation of the hough transform
First Claim
1. A device for processing an image to recognize characteristic features of the image comprising:
- an image processor for identifying characteristic features of an image, said image processor adding values associated with rectangular coordinates of pixels representing a windowed partition of an image to provide plural counts, each count corresponding to a number of occurrences for each of plural polar coordinate values determined from said rectangular coordinates using a Hough transform in an array of overlapping polar coordinate values, said image processor further including;
a plurality of comparators for comparing the plural counts of said polar coordinate values with one another in parallel;
at least one logic device for logically combining outputs of said comparators to identify at least one local maxima count; and
at least one additional comparator for comparing the at least one local maxima count with an adaptive threshold to identify at least one maximum meeting point of polar coordinate values, said at least one maximum meeting point representing a characteristic feature of said image.
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Abstract
In accordance with the present invention, a method and apparatus are disclosed for real-time processing of digitized image data using an implementation of the Hough transform. More specifically, frames of image data are received and stored as pixel arrays in a rectangular coordinate system. Pixels having values above a predetermined intensity are subsequently transformed into polar coordinate space. Maximum meeting points of curves associated with all pixels which have been transformed into polar coordinate space are then identified using a real-time, hardware implementation of a neuro-Hough transform for analyzing windowed portions of the digitized image. The present invention identifies maximum meeting points in polar coordinate space using a neuro-Hough transform implemented as a single chip.
169 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A device for processing an image to recognize characteristic features of the image comprising:
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an image processor for identifying characteristic features of an image, said image processor adding values associated with rectangular coordinates of pixels representing a windowed partition of an image to provide plural counts, each count corresponding to a number of occurrences for each of plural polar coordinate values determined from said rectangular coordinates using a Hough transform in an array of overlapping polar coordinate values, said image processor further including; a plurality of comparators for comparing the plural counts of said polar coordinate values with one another in parallel; at least one logic device for logically combining outputs of said comparators to identify at least one local maxima count; and at least one additional comparator for comparing the at least one local maxima count with an adaptive threshold to identify at least one maximum meeting point of polar coordinate values, said at least one maximum meeting point representing a characteristic feature of said image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21)
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16. An image processing system for processing an image to recognize characteristic features of an image, said image processing system comprising:
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an imaging device for generating image data; a frame buffer for receiving frames of analog image data from the imaging device at a data acquiring rate; an analog-to-digital converter for converting said frames of analog image data into digitized image frames, said digitized image frames having a plurality of pixel values; and an image processor for transforming rectangular coordinates associated with each of said pixel values in a rectangular coordinate space window into polar coordinate space coordinates using a Hough transform, and for detecting and processing a plurality of local maxima meeting points of said polar space coordinates in parallel at said data acquiring rate to detect at least one maximum meeting point using at least one adaptive threshold, each of said local maxima meeting points corresponding to a number of occurrences of a polar coordinate set associated with said transformed rectangular coordinates and being used to detect said at least one maximum meeting point as a characteristic feature for portions of a digitized image frame which have been selected using said rectangular coordinate space window. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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22. A method for processing image data to recognize characteristic features of an image for vehicle guidance, comprising the steps of:
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processing the image data in an image processor to identify characteristic features of the image, said step of processing including the steps of; adding values associated with rectangular coordinates of pixels representing a windowed partition of the image to provide a count of a number of occurrences for each of plural polar coordinate values in an array of overlapping polar coordinate values; comparing said counts of said polar coordinate values with one another in parallel; logically combining results of said comparing step to identify a plurality of local maxima meeting points of said polar coordinate values; and comparing the logically combined results of the comparing step with at least one predetermined threshold to detect and output at least one of said counts as at least one maximum meeting point of said polar coordinate values, said at least one maximum meeting point being output as a characteristic feature of said image and a vehicle guidance control signal which guides a vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for processing image data to recognize characteristic features of an image for vehicle guidance comprising the steps of:
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generating the image data using an image device; acquiring frames of analog image data from said image device at a data acquiring rate; converting said frames of analog image data into digitized image frames, said digitized image frames having a plurality of pixel values; and transforming rectangular coordinates associated with each of said pixel values in a rectangular coordinate space window into polar coordinate space coordinates using a Hough transform, and using a plurality of polar coordinate space windows formed as 3 by 3 pixel arrays to examine data obtained from said rectangular space window in an image processor and to detect and output at least one maximum meeting point at said data acquiring rate, said at least one maximum meeting point corresponding to a number of occurrences of a polar coordinate set associated with said rectangular coordinate space window, and being output as a characteristic feature of said image and a vehicle guidance control signal which guides a vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification