The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 20, 1983
Filed:
May. 31, 1977
Martin G Woolfson, Baltimore, MD (US);
John G Romanski, Kingsville, MD (US);
Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
A video signal preprocessor for discriminating a target image from background in the video frame signals generated by an electro-optical sensor electrically representing the field of view thereof is disclosed. A predetermined portion of each video frame signal is selected and divided into a predetermined number of elements. Each element is assigned a gray level value from a plurality of discrete gray level values as a measure of video intensity. A discriminant function of gray level values is formed from the video data of an initial video frame signal based on the number of elements assigned to each discrete gray level value. Elements which have assigned gray level values corresponding to those of the formed discriminant function are then selected from the video frame signals subsequent to the initial one and may represent a substantial image of the target. Further preprocessing may be performed by categorizing the gray level values of the discriminant function into a set of discrete modes. A signal representative of the velocity of the group of elements having gray levels corresponding to each mode is generated for each mode of the set of modes. A target set of modes is identified from the set of modes based on the generated velocity signals and a predetermined velocity signal representative of the background velocity. Only elements which have assigned gray levels corresponding to the target set of modes are selected from the video frame signals to represent a target image.