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:
Nov. 25, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 18, 2000
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
There is disclosed an image processing apparatus. A contour interval intended to be extracted is designated (S ). A start point designated in S is used as the initial position of an attended point, and an end point is set as a target point of contour tracing (S ). A positional relation of the attended point and the target point is calculated (S ). A blind mask for blinding pixels in the vicinity of the attended point is prepared (S ). This mask processing permits a considerably free contour line tracing, while setting a restriction to securely converge to the target point. The pixel with the maximum edge strength is searched for from the pixels in the vicinity of the attended point (S ), and the searched contour pixel is set as a new attended point (S ). The operation is repeated from S to S until the new attended point reaches the target point (S ).