Patent ID: 9443165
Filing Date: 2016-09-13
CPC Classification: G06K,G06T

Claim Text:
1. A method for identifying spatially extensive image features that are not pixelwise contiguous in a two-dimensional digital image to be examined having pixels arranged in grid form in the form of a rectangular grid, wherein each pixel of the two-dimensional digital image is respectively assigned two coordinate values corresponding to their position in the rectangular grid of the digital image, and the respective coordinate values of adjoining pixels respectively differ by one pixel dimension; wherein the individual pixels are run through in the order of a regular scan; wherein for each of the thus run-through pixels the following method steps a) to d) are performed, namely that: a) the color and/or brightness values associated with the respective pixel are checked for the presence of a specified criterion for exceeding or undershooting a specified threshold value; b) upon the presence of this criterion, an environment, surrounding the respective pixel, of a specified size and form is determined, wherein pixels are added to the environment as environment pixels only when these environment pixels have already been checked for marked pixels in their environment; c) the environment of the respective pixel is assigned at least one environment pixel, wherein at least one of the coordinate values of the environment pixel differs from the respective coordinate value of the pixel by at least two pixel dimensions; and d) already marked environment pixels are searched for within the environment, and upon the presence of a minimum number of marked environment pixels having the same marking within the environment of at least one marked environment pixel, the respective pixel is assigned the same marking, otherwise the respective pixel is assigned a new, not yet allocated marking; and subsequently, after the run through the pixels, those amounts of pixels which have respectively been assigned the same marking are regarded as image features.