Patent ID: 6385340
Filing Date: 2002-05-07
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
For use in an automatic image processing system, a method for locating a position of an object within an image, the image defined by a plurality of image pixels, each image pixel having a known intensity value and a known coordinate point, comprising the steps of:determining a template corresponding to an estimation of the object; translating said template to an abstract template by defining said abstract template using a number of vectors comprising a set of coordinate points and corresponding edge directions, each coordinate point lying on an edge of said template and a corresponding edge direction passing through said coordinate point perpendicular to said edge at said coordinate point, and using vectors along substantially vertical and substantially horizontal extents of said template; minimizing said number of said vectors; selecting at least one vector for each different edge of said template only where a sufficiently large angular difference exists between adjacent edges; converting said abstract template to a ranging template; displacing said ranging template to each of a plurality of known coordinate point locations within said image; and correlating said ranging template with said image at each of said locations until a maximum correlation is located, wherein the location corresponding to said maximum correlation indicates the position of the object.