Patent ID: 7734099
Filing Date: 2010-06-08
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for determining boundaries of image objects visible in a digitized two-dimensional image, the method comprising: (a) identifying a first pixel of the image object as a target pixel; (b) identifying additional pixels adjacent to the target pixel along line in a desired direction from the target pixel based upon a common quality between the pixels until a boundary pixel of the image object is reached; (c) identifying a further boundary pixel in another line adjacent to but offset orthogonally from the line of step (b) by reference to the boundary pixel; (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) using the further boundary pixel of step (c) as the target pixel of step (b) until no further adjacent pixels of the image object are identified; and (e) storing lists of the left and right boundary pixels; and (f) reversing either the left or right boundary pixel lists and concatenating the two to produce a single boundary pixel list that defines a series of line segments that describe a polygon outlining the image object.