Patent ID: 8306111

Claim:
A hybrid connected component labeling process for analyzing an image comprising a plurality of pixels having at least one foreground pixel, comprising steps of: executing a forward scan procedure comprising steps of: scanning the plurality of pixels in a first direction; and assigning a forward label to the scanned pixel according to another forward label of at least one pixel adjacent to the scanned pixel when the scanned pixel is the foreground pixel; executing a backward scan procedure comprising steps of: scanning the plurality of pixels in a second direction opposite to the first direction; and assigning a backward label to the scanned pixel according to another backward label of at least one pixel adjacent to the scanned pixel and the forward label of the scanned pixel when the scanned pixel is the foreground pixel; and executing a first label rearrange procedure comprising steps of: providing a label allocation table including a plurality of final labels and a plurality of reference labels; scanning the plurality of pixels in the first direction; assigning one of the plurality of final labels to the scanned pixel according to the backward label of the scanned pixel and the reference labels; recording label connection of labels; and updating the reference label in the label allocation table according to the label connection to release the final label corresponding to the reference label, wherein in the first label rearrange procedure, the one final label is an unused final label when none of the adjacent pixel is the foreground pixel and the backward label doesn't match any one of the plurality of reference labels.