Patent ID: 6947590

Claim:
A method of segmenting an image formed by a plurality of pixels, each pixel being described by a vector having components each relating to a different measured image characteristic, said method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving, for each pixel, a plurality of the vector components and a corresponding error covariance representation of that pixel; (b) for each pixel, fitting each component and the corresponding covariance representation to a predetermined linear model to obtain a set of model parameters and corresponding confidence representations; (c) defining the pixels each to be initial regions of the image; (d) merging the regions in a statistical order using the sets of model parameters and confidence representations to obtain a null segmentation of the image; (e) analysing a curve formed using the model parameters and corresponding confidence representations to determine an optimal halting criterion at which to cease the merging of the regions; and (f) processing said merging of the initial regions to halt when the optimal halting criterion is reached.