Patent ID: 7171043
Filing Date: 2007-01-30
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. An image processing method, comprising: forming from multiple images a hierarchical statistical model for each object to be identified in an image training database, the hierarchical statistical model having a parent layer with multiple supernodes associated with a first image direction and a child layer having multiple nodes associated with each supernode of the parent layer and a second image direction, wherein the parent layer is formed from a hidden Markov model (HMM) and the child layer is formed from a coupled hidden Markov model (CHMM), or the parent layer is formed from a CHMM and the child layer is formed from an HMM: obtaining an array of observation vectors from an image to be identified; and applying a Viterbi algorithm to the observation vectors given parameters of the hierarchical statistical model for each object, and identifying an object by finding a highest matching score between an observation sequence and hierarchical statistical model.