Patent ID: 8326047
Filing Date: 2012-12-04
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. An image processing method, wherein each image is composed of an array of image points that are pixels or voxels, each image point being univocally defined by its position within the array of image points and by one or more numerical parameters defining image point appearance, the method comprising: causing each image point to operate as a node of an artificial neural network, the image being processed as a function of parameters defining an appearance of each image point as values of the nodes of said artificial neural network and as a function of connections of each image point under processing with neighboring image points composed of image points of a predetermined subset of image points comprised within an image point window; and obtaining image points of the new image by iterative evolution steps of parameters defining the appearance, by iterative evolution steps of values of the set of connections, or by a combination of said evolutions, wherein the processing occurs by one or more evolution iterative steps, and wherein each step is a function also of connections of neighboring image points with the image point under examination, when each of said neighboring image points of the image point under examination is considered also as a neighboring image point of one or more or all image points adjacent to said neighboring image point, which function is an immediate feedback contribution for determining appearance values of all other image points, thereby causing the appearance values of each image point of the image to contribute to the determination of new appearance values of all the other image points of a new image resulting from the iterative step, further comprising one or more equations evolving one or more of image points or a connection matrix of said image points considering not only values of neighboring image points and their connections with a central image point, but also subsequent order relationships deriving when each of said neighboring image point is considered as a neighboring image point of each adjacent image point, and when each adjacent image point is considered as the central image point and provides the iteration of said one or more equations at each processing cycle, causing each image point to give its own contribution to each image point distant therefrom through neighboring image points that propagate such contribution.