Patent ID: 7583839

Claim:
A method for analyzing digital images, comprising: performing an image operation on gray scale image data to identify intensity transitions of a first digital image, wherein the gray scale image data is a digital representation of a gray scale version of the first digital image, and wherein the gray scale image data comprises a set of data values, wherein each data value of the set of data values identifies a gray scale value of a sequence of gray scale values; determining, for at least a subset of data values, in the set of data values, a slope value for an intensity transition associated with the data value; converting the slope value, associated with each data value in the subset of data values, to a possible slope value of a bounded set of possible slope values; and generating first slope data, for the first digital image, that describes a frequency of occurrence, across the subset of data values, of each possible slope value, of the bounded set of possible slope values; wherein at least the steps of determining, converting and generating are performed by at least one computing device.