Method and apparatus for identifying characteristics of an object in a field of view
First Claim
1. A method of identifying the characteristics of an object in a field of view;
- said method comprising;
forming an electrical image of said field of view in a device;
reading out said electrical image from said device to produce an electrical waveform;
segmenting and digitizing said waveform into a plurality of digitized electrical signals, each of said plurality of digitized electrical signals corresponding to a pixel of said electrical image;
processing said plurality of digitized signals to form an array of pixels wherein each pixel having the characteristic of interest has a non-zero value and is linked to another pixel also having the characteristic of interest;
storing said array in a first memory means, addressable by an address signal of the form (X,Y) where X is a column address signal and Y is a row address signal;
storing in an addressable index memory means a plurality of values, each value being an address to said first memory means where a pixel having the characteristic of interest is located; and
storing in a second memory means, having the same addressable dimensions as said first memory means, in address locations corresponding to address locations in said first memory means where pixels having characteristics of interest are located, values which are addresses to said addressable index memory means where the content is the address of said first memory means of pixels having the characteristic of interest.
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Accused Products
Abstract
To identify the boundary pixels of a number of particles in the same field of view, an electrical image of the field of view is formed by a CCD raster scan device. The electrical signal from the CCD device is segmented and is digitized. The signals are processed such that the boundary pixels have non-zero values and are linked to one another. The values of the pixels are stored in a boundary memory addressable by a row signal and column signal. In an addressable index memory, a plurality of values are stored with each value being an address to the boundary memory where the pixels having the boundary are located. Finally, a location memory has the same addressable dimensions as the boundary memory. The location memory stores, in address locations corresponding to address locations in the boundary memory where the pixels having characteristics of interest are located, addresses to the addressable index memory.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method of identifying the characteristics of an object in a field of view;
- said method comprising;
forming an electrical image of said field of view in a device; reading out said electrical image from said device to produce an electrical waveform; segmenting and digitizing said waveform into a plurality of digitized electrical signals, each of said plurality of digitized electrical signals corresponding to a pixel of said electrical image; processing said plurality of digitized signals to form an array of pixels wherein each pixel having the characteristic of interest has a non-zero value and is linked to another pixel also having the characteristic of interest; storing said array in a first memory means, addressable by an address signal of the form (X,Y) where X is a column address signal and Y is a row address signal; storing in an addressable index memory means a plurality of values, each value being an address to said first memory means where a pixel having the characteristic of interest is located; and storing in a second memory means, having the same addressable dimensions as said first memory means, in address locations corresponding to address locations in said first memory means where pixels having characteristics of interest are located, values which are addresses to said addressable index memory means where the content is the address of said first memory means of pixels having the characteristic of interest. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- said method comprising;
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5. An apparatus for processing a characteristic of interest of an object in a field of view, said apparatus comprising:
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raster scan imaging means for forming an electrical image of the field of view and for outputting an electrical wave form representative of the field of view; means for segmenting said electrical wave form into an array of pixels, and for digitizing each pixel in said array into a digitized signal; processing means for processing said array of pixels into a first representation wherein each pixel having the characteristic of interest has a non-zero value and is linked to another pixel also having the characteristic of interest; first memory means for storing said first representation; said first memory means addressable by an address of the form (X,Y) where X is the column address to the pixel array and Y is the row address to the pixel array; addressable index memory means having a plurality of contents, with each content addressable by an address, each content being an address for the first memory means where a pixel having the characteristic of interest is located; and second memory means having the same addressable dimensions as said first memory means wherein each location in said second memory means has a corresponding location in said first memory means, and wherein the content of a location in said second memory means corresponding to a location in said first memory means where a pixel has the characteristic of interest, has an address addressing said index memory means, to address the first memory means where the pixel having the characteristic of interest is located. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. A method of identifying pixels, having a certain characteristic, of an object in a field of view, said method comprising:
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forming an electrical image of the field of view in a device; reading out said electrical image in a raster scan format 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; digitizing the amplitude of each of said electrical signals to form a greyscale signal; processing each greyscale signal to identify pixels having the certain characteristics and to identify their location; storing said pixels identified in locations identified in a first memory array; storing the locations identified in a sequential index memory means; and storing an address of the index memory means at the same locations identified in a second memory array. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of identifying the boundary of a particle in a field of view;
- said method comprising;
forming an electrical image of said field of view in a device; reading out said electrical image from said device to produce an electrical waveform; segmenting and digitizing said waveform into a plurality of digitized electrical signals, each of said plurality of digitized electrical signals corresponding to a pixel of said electrical image; processing said plurality of digitized signals to form an array of pixels wherein each pixel corresponding to the boundary of said particle has a non-zero value and is linked to another pixel corresponding to the boundary of said particle and wherein a pixel not corresponding to the boundary of said particle has a zero value; storing said array in a first memory means, addressable by an address signal of the form (X,Y) where X is a column address signal and Y is a row address signal; storing in an index memory means a plurality of values, each value being an address to said first memory means where a pixel having a non-zero value is located; and storing in a second memory means, having the same addressable dimensions as said first memory means, in address locations corresponding to address locations in said first memory means where pixels having non-zero values are located, values which are addresses to said index memory means where the content is the address of said first memory means of pixels having the non-zero values. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
- said method comprising;
Specification