Patent ID: 7609891

Claim:
A method of quantifying scatterness within images or video frames based on pixel characteristics, comprising: (a) simplifying images in response to detection of desired pixel characteristics by setting each pixel of an image to a first state indicative of pixels lacking the desired characteristic or range of characteristics, or a second state indicative of pixels possessing the desired pixel characteristic or range of characteristics, so as to reduce possible states of each pixel; (b) merging each block of pixels from within a plurality of pixel blocks within an image into a collection of single pixels having either said first state or said second state; said merging is performed in response to execution of programming within a computer processing device; (c) registering the number or proportion of pixels having said second state within the pixels; wherein every level in the merging and registration process is based on one of two pixel states; (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) until a desired level of merging is reached; and (e) generating scatterness sequence information in response to determining a merging rate of pixels of said second state for at least two of the merges; wherein said quantifying of scatterness is performed within a classification or comparison of images or video frames.