Patent ID: 6028948
Filing Date: 2000-02-22
Classification: E01C,G06T

Abstract:
A method for the detection and analysis of anomalies in a surface, said method comprising the steps of:obtaining an image of said surface including at least one of said anomalies, wherein said one anomaly is a line anomaly;filtering said image to enhance a depiction of said line anomaly by removing non-line-anomalous features of said image, said filtering step producing a line pixel map;filtering said image to enhance a depiction of an area anomaly by removing non-area-anomalous features of said image, said filtering step producing an area pixel map;combining said line pixel map and said area pixel map to produce a combined pixel map;partitioning said combined pixel map into a multiplicity of subimages, wherein each of said subimages includes a plurality of pixels;assigning a status characteristic to each of said subimages in response to any anomaly depicted therein;forming an anomalous object in response to said status characteristics of said subimages, said anomalous object corresponding to said one anomaly in said surface; andproducing an object map of said surface, said object map depicting a location of said anomalous object.