Vision coprocessing
First Claim
1. In a rank value filter apparatus of the type having input means for inputting a plurality of candidate digital words, each said candidate digital word comprising a plurality of bits, and storage means for at least initially storing a predetermined rank of word to be selected from said plurality of candidate digital words, the improvement comprisingA. mask means for storing a mask associated with each of said candidate digital words, each said mask being at least initially set,B. iterative ranking means coupled with said input means, said storage means and said mask means for iteratively comparing(i) a respective portion of each of those plural candidate digital words that is associated with a set mask with(ii) a respective portion of each of the other words that are associated with a set mask for generating a respective portion of a resultant digital word, andC. means for generating said resultant digital word as representative of said predetermined rank.
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Abstract
A coprocessor in an image processing system is coupled to the bus to which a CPU and RAM holding image data are also coupled. The coprocessor extracts an input pixel stream corresponding to input images from selected bus transactions, performs computations on the input stream to produce output pixel streams corresponding to output images, and inserts the output pixel streams into selected CPU-to-memory bus transactions so that the memory stores the data. The CPU generates the selected bus transactions with specially marked address and/or control signals. The coprocessor includes a lookup table, and a first row delay. The row delay accumulates the three most recent rows of input pixels, which are sent to Sobel and rank processing sections for neighborhood processing. The results are thresholded and formatted, and are either output directly or passed through an additional pair of row delays to accumulate three rows of result data for neighborhood peak detection.
21 Citations
12 Claims
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1. In a rank value filter apparatus of the type having input means for inputting a plurality of candidate digital words, each said candidate digital word comprising a plurality of bits, and storage means for at least initially storing a predetermined rank of word to be selected from said plurality of candidate digital words, the improvement comprising
A. mask means for storing a mask associated with each of said candidate digital words, each said mask being at least initially set, B. iterative ranking means coupled with said input means, said storage means and said mask means for iteratively comparing (i) a respective portion of each of those plural candidate digital words that is associated with a set mask with (ii) a respective portion of each of the other words that are associated with a set mask for generating a respective portion of a resultant digital word, and C. means for generating said resultant digital word as representative of said predetermined rank.
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2. In an apparatus for grey scale morphology of the type having input means for inputting a plurality of digital words representing an input matrix of digital values, the improvement comprising
A. preprocessor means coupled to said input means for performing a selected mathematical function on said matrix of digital values to form a preprocessed matrix of digital values, B. rank value filter means coupled with said preprocessor means for selecting from said preprocessed matrix of values a digital value of predetermined rank, C. said rank value filter means including (i) mask means for storing a mask associated with each of said candidate digital words, each said mask being at least initially set, (ii) iterative ranking means coupled with said input means and said mask means for iteratively comparing a) a respective portion of each of those plural candidate digital words that is associated with a set mask with (b) a respective portion of each of the other words that are associated with a set mask for generating a respective portion of a resultant digital word, and (iii) means for generating said resultant digital word as representative of said predetermined rank, and D. means coupled with said rank value filter means for generating said selected digital value as representative of one or more values in said input matrix of digital values.
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7. A method for carrying out rank value filtering to identify in a plurality of candidate digital words a digital word of predetermined rank, comprising
A. inputting a plurality of candidate digital words, each said candidate digital word comprising a plurality of bits, B. initially storing a predetermined rank of word to be selected from said plurality of candidate digital words, C. storing a mask associated with each of said candidate digital words, each said mask being at least initially set, D. iteratively comparing (i) a respective portion of each of those plural candidate digital words that is associated with a set mask with (ii) a respective portion of each of the other words that are associated with a set mask for generating a respective portion of a resultant digital word, and E. generating said resultant digital word as representative of a digital word of said predetermined rank with respect to said plurality of candidate digital words.
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8. A method for carrying out grey scale morphology on a plurality of digital words representing an input matrix of digital values, including
A. inputting a plurality of digital words representing an input matrix of digital values, B. performing a selected mathematical function on said matrix of digital values to form a preprocessed matrix of digital values, C. performing a rank value filtering step for selecting from said preprocessed matrix of digital values a digital value of predetermined rank, D. said rank value filtering step including (i) storing a mask associated with each word of said preprocessed matrix of digital values, each said mask being at least initially set to identify those words as candidate digital words, (ii) iteratively comparing (a) a respective portion of each of those plural candidate digital words that is associated with a set mask with (b) a respective portion of each of the other candidate digital words that are associated with a set mask for generating a respective portion of a resultant digital word, and (iii) generating said resultant digital word as representative of a said digital value of predetermined rank, and E. generating said selected digital value of predetermined rank as representative of one or more values in said input matrix of digital values.
Specification