Patent ID: 8682079
Filing Date: 2014-03-25
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A method for use in extracting structures of interest from overhead imagery data, comprising: identifying, using a processor, a plurality of groups of pixels in at least one input overhead image of a geographical region, wherein each pixel in each group is adjacent to at least one other pixel in the group, wherein adjacent pixels in each group do not differ by more than a predetermined level of a dissimilarity measure between the adjacent pixels, wherein a plurality of such groups of pixels at each of a plurality of successive predetermined levels of the dissimilarity measure are identified, wherein the groups at one of the predetermined levels are hierarchically related to the groups at an adjacent one of the predetermined levels in a hierarchical data structure, and wherein each group is a first component; tagging, using the processor, each of the first components based on a number of pixels present in the first component to identify one of a plurality of area zones within which the first component resides, wherein each successive area zone includes first components having a greater number of pixels than do the first components of a previous area zone; and generating for each pixel of the input overhead image, using the processor, a vector including a number of entries corresponding to each of the area zones from the tagging step, wherein each entry comprises a difference between a lowest dissimilarity measure level of a first component within which the pixel is disposed in the corresponding area zone and a lowest dissimilarity measure level of a first component within which the pixel is disposed in a subsequent area zone.