Patent ID: 6901168

Claim:
A method of processing information contained in an image ( 4 ), including: a first processing ( 1 - 4 ) for defining an area of interest of the image ( 8 ), said area of interest being computed from a frequency distribution of the image, effecting an adaptive thresholding ( 1 - 8 ) of the area of interest in order to obtain a thresholded image ( 10 ) of the area of interest, referred to as the first thresholded image, segmentation ( 1 - 12 ) of the thresholded image, in order to obtain a first set of morphological layers ( 14 - 1 , 14 - 2 , 14 - 3 . . . ) of the thresholded image, shape recognition processing applied to each of the morphological layers of the first set of morphological layers, the shape recognition processing applied including: a skeletonisation of each morphological layer, in order to establish a skeleton of elements of this layer, a polygonalisation using the pixels of the skeleton of this layer, in order to generate segments or bipoints, a processing for determining the shapes to be recognised at the level of the multiple points, following the polygonalisation, the processing for determining the shapes to be recognised at the level of the multiple points including the use of first and second skeleton-tracking algorithms: the first algorithm effecting a line tracking favoring a bifurcation to the left in the case of a multiple node, generating a first skeleton tracking, the second algorithm effecting a line tracking favoring a bifurcation to the right in the case of a multiple node, generating a second skeleton tracking, a structuring of the bipoints, in order to collect together those belonging to one and the same share of the morphological layer, merging the data resulting from the application of two skeleton-tracking algorithms, in order to eliminate the redundant information contained in the two skeleton trackings, the merging of the data including the determination of the segments, or bipoints, of one of the skeleton trackings, which are included, partially or totally, in the other, and performing the steps of: a) the establishment of a single list of bipoints, in increasing order of length, b) the selection of the largest of the bipoints in this last list, c) seeking of partial inclusion with the other bipoints, d) when a partially included bipoint is found during the previous step, testing the two bipoints by polygonalisation, e) if the result of step d) is positive, the erasure of the bipoints, replacement by the merged bipoint, and return to step c), f) the continuation of step c), if the result of step d) has more than two points, g) if step d) supplies no new bipoints, the storage of the last bipoint issuing from step d), the erasure of this bipoint from the list of bipoints established at step a), and return to step a).