Patent ID: 8538175

Claim:
A method of analyzing an image or images, comprising: a) providing one or more starting images, b) detecting features of an image or images identical or related to said starting image or images, and c) representing shading of areas of an image or images identical or related to said starting image or images wherein said representing shading of areas comprises: guiding, limiting, constraining, or influencing said representing with said detected features, and d) encoding said features and representations of said shading or an approximation thereof, whereby the detection of features and representation of shading of the image or images may allow for said image or images to be more efficiently encoding, stored, compressed, displayed at alternate scales or on alternate shapes, or recovered from intentional and unintentional information loss, while substantially retaining semantic or perceptual information about said image or images, and further whereby guiding, limiting, constraining, or influencing said representing shading of areas may reduce or prevent shading information on opposite sides or bounded by a feature from unduly mixing or being influenced by each other or others.