Patent ID: 9734593
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: G06K,G06T

Claim:
1. A method of determining a location of a given object in an image of interest that comprises pixels, the object being characterized by having a smooth pattern and an additional property, the method comprising using at least one hardware processor for: obtaining an image of the given object; specifying a first group of image portions arranged to define a grid consisting of some of the pixels of the image that are arranged in non-contiguous lines, wherein at least one of said non-contiguous lines comprises a plurality of the pixels of the image; identifying, among the specified first group of image portions, a candidate image portion that is characterized as comprising a portion of the smooth pattern, wherein the identification of the candidate image portion as comprising the portion of the smooth pattern is by searching the grid for adjacent pixels that differ in at least one of (i) brightness, (ii) color, and (iii) intensity, by less than 15%; defining an image region around the candidate image portion, the image region being composed of image portions, each comprising a portion of the smooth pattern, the image region being surrounded by image portions not comprising a portion of the smooth pattern; comparing the additional property of the given object with same property of the image region; and determining the location of the given object as the location of the defined image region, if the image region has the additional property of the given object.