Patent ID: 6973259
Filing Date: 2005-12-06
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for extracting feature quantities of a binary image by scanning, image data that is a binary image to be displayed in one frame, comprising the steps of: A) in scanning one line of image data, when a detected pixel has a prescribed density, checking an image area content of each of a first pixel immediately preceding the detected pixel on the one line and a content of a second pixel that is on an immediately preceding line and right above the detected pixel to determine, based on the image area content, if the detected pixel belongs to an image area of the first pixel or an image area of the second pixel; B) when the detected pixel belongs to the image area of the first pixel or the image area of the second pixel, having the detected pixel inherit an area number of the image area of the first pixel and the second pixel to which the detected pixel was determined to belong; C) performing the above processing steps A)–B) sequentially on succeeding pixels to store resulting image data in a line buffer; D) after the scanning of the one line has been completed, scanning the line buffer in a reverse direction and modifying the image area content of consecutive pixels having different area numbers to have a same area number when the consecutive pixels belong to respective image areas but have different area numbers; and E) repeating the line scanning of steps A)–D) to a last line of one frame to store feature quantities for each image area.