Patent ID: 7471833

Claim:
A method of providing an electronic representation of data distribution of data elements derived from a plurality of images for at least one object or image by processing signals corresponding to the plurality of images, the representation having a hierarchical structure, the method comprising: (a) deriving an approximate representation of input data, derived from a plurality of images, the input data comprising the data distribution, the approximate representation comprising a plurality of data elements and forming a node in the hierarchical representation; (b) deriving error data comprising errors of the data elements of the approximate representation; (c) analysing the error data, to determine if the errors of the data elements meet predetermined criteria, and (d) if the step of analysing determines that the errors of the data elements meet the predetermined criteria, marking the node as a leaf node in the hierarchical representation, or (e) if the step of analysing determines that the errors of the data elements do not meet the predetermined criteria, repeating steps (a) to (d) recursively, using the error data as the data distribution, to form one or more further nodes in the hierarchical representation, and (f) storing the final electronic representation of the data distribution of data elements comprising the nodes in a hierarchical representation on an electronic storage medium for use in image analysis.