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:
Mar. 11, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1998
Radovan V. Krtolica, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A sample image ( ) is segmented by an image segmentation system ( ) including a size reduction unit ( ), which reduces the size of the image ( ), and, at the same time, fills small gaps between foreground pixels. Thereafter, a connected component analyzer ( ) identifies connected components and their associated minimum bounding rectangles in the reduced image ( ). Next, a target object filter ( ) searches the connected components for target objects, making use of a target object library ( ) to identify target objects characterized by such parameters as size, shape, and texture. Finally, an inverse mapper ( ) locates the bounding rectangles of the target objects in the original sample image ( ), and extracts the associated portions of the image ( ) for analysis in a conventional image classifier ( ).