Patent ID: 7190834

Claim:
A method for finding a deformed pattern in an image, the method comprising: providing a plurality of features that represent the deformed pattern in the image; dividing the plurality of features into a plurality of sub-pluralities, each sub-plurality representing a sub-pattern in the image, a plurality of the sub-patterns representing the deformed pattern; determining a distance between each pair of sub-patterns of the plurality of sub-pluralities; selecting a first sub-pattern to locate in the image; locating the first sub-pattern in the image so as to provide a first sub-pattern location; using the first sub-pattern location to select a second sub-pattern to locate in the image; and locating the second sub-pattern in the image so as to provide a second sub-pattern location; and using the first sub-pattern location and the second sub-pattern location to determine a location of the deformed pattern.