Patent ID: 8855388

Claim:
A method for detecting an anomaly in an image, the method comprising: convolving a digital image with a blurring filter to create a plurality of first convolved images at differing scales; convolving each of the plurality of first convolved images with a curvature detection filter, thereby creating a plurality of second convolved images, each of the plurality of first convolved images and a corresponding one of the plurality of second convolved images corresponding to respective ones of a plurality of stages; creating a plurality of surgery masks, each surgery mask being based at least in part on one of the plurality of the second convolved images of a current stage and one of the plurality of second convolved images from a previous stage; determining a neighborhood median for each pixel location of the plurality of surgery masks; and identifying one or more peaks in the digital image based at least upon the second convolved image from the current stage, the first convolved image from the previous stage, and the neighborhood medians for the current stage.