Method and apparatus for flash correlation
First Claim
1. A method of comparing an unknown pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values and a known pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to determine the presence or absence of an artifact indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns, said method comprising the steps:
- a) overlaying in the spatial domain the unknown and known patterns and rotating one of the known and unknown patterns with respect to the other about a point, so that the known and unknown patterns are rotationally unaligned, to produce a composite pattern of the combined elements therefrom;
b) sensing first and second average intensities respectively of all of the combined elements within a first area of said composite pattern and of all of the combined elements within a second area of said composite pattern disposed about said first area; and
c) detecting the presence of said artifact produced by the combined elements of the composite pattern by determining a variation between said first and second average intensities greater than a selected threshold value and detecting the absence of said artifact by determining a variation of said first and second average intensities not greater than said selected threshold value;
wherein the presence of an artifact is indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns.
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Abstract
Flash correlation instantaneously compares two or more patterns to determine whether they are the same or essentially the same, regardless of the complexity of the images, and in spite of the addition of noise, local changes, and variations in resolution and focus. Flash correlation artifacts also provide cues to quantitative assessment of relative movement, stretching, blurring, and warping of one image with respect to the other. Presence of a flash correlation artifact between two stacks of patterns is sufficient to identify the stacks as containing at least one pair of massively correlated patterns. Precise control of registration, image size and orientation is not required. An image may be combined with other images, either by overlays or concatenation, and still be identified. A Flash correlation engine may utilize optical, analog or digital processing to provide rapid sorting, classification, and identification functions with minimal computational complexity.
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Citations
45 Claims
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1. A method of comparing an unknown pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values and a known pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to determine the presence or absence of an artifact indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns, said method comprising the steps:
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a) overlaying in the spatial domain the unknown and known patterns and rotating one of the known and unknown patterns with respect to the other about a point, so that the known and unknown patterns are rotationally unaligned, to produce a composite pattern of the combined elements therefrom; b) sensing first and second average intensities respectively of all of the combined elements within a first area of said composite pattern and of all of the combined elements within a second area of said composite pattern disposed about said first area; and c) detecting the presence of said artifact produced by the combined elements of the composite pattern by determining a variation between said first and second average intensities greater than a selected threshold value and detecting the absence of said artifact by determining a variation of said first and second average intensities not greater than said selected threshold value;
wherein the presence of an artifact is indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of characterizing a data base comprising first and second known patterns of dispersed elements of varying intensity values, said first and second known patterns to be compared with at least one unknown pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to determine the degree of similarity between said unknown pattern and at least one of said first and second known patterns, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) overlaying in the spatial domain said first and second known patterns and rotating one of said first and second known patterns with respect to the other about a point so that said first and second known patterns are rotationally unaligned, to form a reference artifact of the combined elements of said first and second patterns; b) measuring a characteristic value of said reference artifact to provide a corresponding reference value; c) overlaying in the spatial domain said first and second known patterns and said unknown pattern and rotating said known patterns with respect to said unknown pattern, so that said known patterns and said unknown pattern are rotationally unaligned, to form a comparison artifact; and d) measuring the characteristic of said comparison artifact to provide a corresponding comparison value and comparing said reference and comparison values to provide an indication of the degree of similarity between said unknown pattern and said one known pattern. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of comparing an unknown pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values and a known pattern of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to sense the presence or absence of an apparent artifact and to determine whether said apparent artifact is valid or false, said valid artifact being indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns, said method comprising the steps:
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a) overlaying in the spatial domain the unknown and known patterns and rotating one of the known and unknown patterns with respect to the other about a point to produce a composite pattern of the combined elements therefrom; b) sensing first and second average intensities respectively of all of the combined elements within a first area of said composite pattern and of all of the combined elements within a second area of said composite pattern disposed about said first area; c) detecting the presence of an apparent artifact produced by the combined elements of the composite pattern by determining a variation between said first and second average intensities; and d) determining whether said apparent artifact is a valid artifact or a false artifact by translating in a given, first direction one of the unknown and known patterns with respect to the other of the unknown and known patterns, and of sensing whether said first area has moved in a second direction transverse with respect to said first direction to thereby determine that said apparent artifact is valid. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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29. A method of determining the degree of similarity between a known pattern and an unknown pattern, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) determining a reference value of a selected characteristic of a reference artifact provided by said known pattern; b) overlaying in the spatial domain said known and unknown patterns and rotating one of said known and unknown patterns with respect to the other, so that said known and unknown patterns are rotationally unaligned, to produce a comparison artifact; and c) measuring the characteristic of said comparison artifact to provide a corresponding comparison value thereof and comparing said reference and comparison values to provide an indication of the degree of similarity between said known and unknown patterns. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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32. A method of comparing unknown and known patterns of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to determine the presence or absence of an artifact indicating a similarity between the known and unknown patterns, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) overlaying in the spatial domain a plurality of copies of at least one of the known or unknown patterns to form a stack of the at least one pattern; b) overlaying in the spatial domain the stack of the at least one pattern and at least one of another of the known and unknown patterns, and imparting relative rotation between said stack and said other pattern, so that said one stack and said other pattern are rotationally unaligned, to produce a composite pattern of the combined elements from the patterns overlaid in this step; c) sensing first and second average intensities respectively of all of the combined elements within a first area of the composite pattern and of all of the combined elements within a second area of the composite pattern disposed about said first area; and d) detecting the presence of said artifact produced by the combined elements of the composite pattern by determining a variation between said first and second average intensities greater than a selected threshold value and detecting the absence of said artifact by determining a variation of said first and second average intensities not greater than said selected threshold artifact is indicative of a similarity between at least one of the patterns in said stack and said other pattern. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35)
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36. A method of comparing unknown and known patterns of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to determine the presence or absence of an artifact indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) rearranging the known and unknown patterns in a like manner to provide scrambled known and unknown patterns respectively; b) overlaying in the spatial domain the scrambled unknown and known patterns and rotating one of the scrambled known and unknown patterns with respect to the other, so that the scrambled known and unknown patterns are rotationally unaligned, about a point to produce a composite pattern of the combined elements therefrom; c) sensing first and second average intensities respectively of all of the combined elements within a first area of said composite pattern and of all of the combined elements within a second area of said composite pattern disposed about said first area; and d) detecting the presence of said artifact produced by the combined elements of said composite pattern by determining a variation between said first and second average intensities greater than a selected threshold value and detecting the absence of said artifact by determining a variation of said first and second average intensities not greater than said selected threshold value;
wherein the presence of an artifact is indicative of a similarity between the known and unknown patterns.
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37. A method of comparing pixelized known and unknown patterns of dispersed elements of binary intensity values to determine the presence of a valid artifact indicative of a similarity between the unknown and known patterns or of a false artifact indicative of a lack of similarity between the unknown and known patterns, one of the known and unknown patterns being rendered as a positive and the other of the known and unknown patterns being rendered as a negative, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) overlaying in the spatial domain the unknown and known patterns and rotating one of the known and unknown patterns with respect to the other about a point to produce an apparent artifact; and b) detecting the presence of a valid artifact by determining whether the apparent artifact is of a square configuration or the presence of an invalid artifact by determining whether the apparent artifact is of a configuration other than square. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40)
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41. A method of comparing unknown and known patterns of dispersed elements of varying intensity values to determine the presence or absence of an artifact indicating a similarity between the known and unknown patterns, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) disposing a plurality of copies of one of the known or unknown patterns in a side by side arrangement to form a first assembly thereof; b) disposing a like plurality of copies of the other of the known or unknown patterns in said side by side arrangement and imparting a rotational movement to each of said other patterns from its position in said side by side arrangement to a position rotationally unaligned with said first assembly to form a second assembly thereof; c) overlaying in the spatial domain said first and second assemblies to produce a like plurality of composite patterns of said combined elements from the patterns overlaid in this step; d) sensing first and second average intensities respectively of a first area and a second area disposed about said first area for each composite pattern of said like plurality; and e) detecting the presence of an artifact produced by said combined elements of each of said like plurality of composite patterns by determining a variation between said first and second average intensities greater than a selected threshold value and detecting the absence of said artifact by determining a variation of said first and second average intensities not greater than said selected threshold value;
wherein the presence of an artifact is indicative of a similarity between the known and unknown patterns. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45)
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Specification