Patent ID: 8606002

Claim:
A method of computationally processing images of areas which may contain objects, the method comprising: acquiring a pixelated color image of an area as a set of pixilated color image data at least temporarily stored in at least one processor-readable medium; computationally preprocessing by at least one processor the set of pixelated color image data for at least a portion of the area to produce a set of two color contour image data that represents at least the portion of the pixilated color image, wherein a first color of the two color contour image data corresponds to contour pixels and a second color of the two color contour image corresponds to non-contour pixels; computationally processing by the at least one processor the set of two color contour image data to find a location of a bottom of a stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data and to find a location of a top of the stack of objects in the set of two color contour image data, if any objects are in the at least portion of the area, wherein the stack of objects includes at least one object if any objects are in the at least portion of the area; determining a horizontal center of the stack of objects based on an overall concentration of contour pixels in the set of two color contour image data; determining an estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects based on a mean/average height of an individual object of the stack rationalized for a distance between an image acquisition device used to acquire the pixelated color image and an expected location of the stack, said distance adjusted based on the location of the bottom of the stack at the determined horizontal center of the stack relative to the expected location of the stack of objects; and subsequent to determining the horizontal center of the stack of objects and the estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects, computationally determining by the at least one processor a total number of objects in the stack, if any based at least in part on a knowledge of the location of the bottom of the stack of objects, the location of the top of the stack of objects and the determined estimated height of individual objects in the stack of objects.