Patent ID: 6483942
Filing Date: 2002-11-19
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
A method of estimating the texture frequency in terms of dots per unit area in a band of an image where connected pixels of the same type are assigned the same identification comprising the steps of:processing each column by iteratively examining each pixel as follows: a) if the current pixel is the same type as the previous pixel in the same column, it is assigned the same identification, b) if the current pixel is the same as the pixel in the same row of the previous column, it is assigned the same identification, c) if the current pixel is different from the previous pixel in the same column and the pixel in the same row of the previous column, it is assigned a new identification, and d) if the current pixel is the same as the previous pixel in the same column and the pixel in the same row of the previous column, the two identifications are merged so that they will both have the same identification, at the end of each column, determining the number of unique identifications there are in the column, and the number of identifications there are in use in the entire band, and determining a value which is a function of the dot frequency within each area by adding the number of identifications in the first column and the number of unique identifications in use in the band up to the last column, minus the number of identifications that were in use after the processing of the first column.