Parallel pattern detection engine

• US 7,502,875 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2007
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trend Micro Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kravec, Kerry A., Slyfield, Jan M., Saidi, Ali G., Tannhof, Pascal R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Niketa I
• Assistant Examiner(s): Martinez, David E
• Application Number:
  US11/682,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150622A1
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• Field of Search: 710/14, 382/181, 382/209
• US Class Current: 710/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/751 Comparing pixel values or logical combinations thereof, or feature values having positional relevance, e.g. template matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/955 using specific electronic processors

Abstract

A parallel pattern detection engine (PPDE) comprise multiple processing units (PUs) customized to do various modes of pattern recognition. The PUs are loaded with different patterns and the input data to be matched is provided to the PUs in parallel. Each pattern has an Opcode that defines what action to take when a particular data in the input data stream either matches or does not match the corresponding data being compared during a clock cycle. Each of the PUs communicate selected information so that PUs may be cascaded to enable longer patterns to be matched or to allow more patterns to be processed in parallel for a particular input data stream.

Claims

1. A method to recognize objects comprising:

providing a database of patterns representative of objects to be recognized;

storing an operation code in a predefined sector of said database;

generating a data stream representative of unknown objects;

providing an address pointer to select one or more of said patterns in said database;

correlating a pattern selected from said patterns in said database with a block of data from said data stream; and

generating a status signal based upon a result of the correlation and the operation code stored with the selected pattern, wherein the operation code contains flag bits, wherein said flag bits indicate one of a single wildcard matching operation, a multiple wildcard matching operation, a last matching operation and an inverse matching operation, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said single wildcard matching operation then a match is indicated if a byte in said data stream matches a byte with said single wildcard operation code, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said multiple wildcard operation then a match is indicated if an indeterminate number of bytes in said data stream does not match a byte with said multiple wildcard operation code, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said inverse matching operation then a match is indicated if every byte except a byte with said inverse operation code matches a byte in said data stream, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said last matching operation then a match is indicated if a byte in said data stream is a last byte in a pattern.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the correlation includes comparing the block of data from the data stream with the pattern selected from said database of patterns.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said predefined sector includes eight bits.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a selected block of data includes eight bits.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said status signal, indicating an unknown object is identified, is being generated only if a relationship between the data from said data stream and said selected pattern is consistent with said operation code stored with said selected pattern.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said status signal, indicating an unknown object is not identified, is being generated only if a relationship between the data from said data stream and the selected pattern is inconsistent with the operation code stored with said selected pattern.

7. The method of claim 1 further including selectively modifying the address pointer in response to results of said correlation and the operation code stored with the selected pattern.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the objects include digitized representation of faces.

9. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein the block of data includes eight bits.