Patent ID: 8326045
Filing Date: 2012-12-04
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. An image processing apparatus comprising: one or more image memories storing image data, a first integrated device in the form of hardware for the segmentation of the image data, a second integrated device, also in the form of hardware, for the determination and processing of contour points, the second device comprising at least one integrated hardware unit that is designed to scan the image data to determine contour points with subpixel accuracy and to store the contour points as continuous list data in memory, a computation unit, which is designed to use a computation mechanism to determine, from the list data stored in the memory, connection probabilities between, in each case, two contour points, taking into account a distance between points, and at least one classifier, which, from the connection probabilities, selects subsets with at least three connection probabilities for possible links between at least three adjacent contour points, one of which is a previously defined central contour point, and, for each subset, sorts out a contour point that is adjacent to the central contour point and has a possible link with a lowest connection probability to an adjacent contour point, provided that the possible link does not connect two points that are adjacent to a central point, and subsequently enters the contour points that have not been sorted out into a contour point list with connectors that identify remaining links to the central point, wherein the at least one classifier is designed to form, in each case, triples of connection probabilities for the central contour point and two further contour points with associated connection probabilities from a set of contour points adjacent to the central point, to determine a lowest of the connection probabilities, and, in each case, to sort out the contour point that is adjacent to the central point and from which the link having the lowest connection probability within the triple originates, from the neighborhood set of contour points adjacent to the central point.