Patent ID: 7502875

Claim:
A method to recognize objects comprising: providing a database of patterns representative of objects to be recognized; storing an operation code in a predefined sector of said database; generating a data stream representative of unknown objects; providing an address pointer to select one or more of said patterns in said database; correlating a pattern selected from said patterns in said database with a block of data from said data stream; and generating a status signal based upon a result of the correlation and the operation code stored with the selected pattern, wherein the operation code contains flag bits, wherein said flag bits indicate one of a single wildcard matching operation, a multiple wildcard matching operation, a last matching operation and an inverse matching operation, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said single wildcard matching operation then a match is indicated if a byte in said data stream matches a byte with said single wildcard operation code, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said multiple wildcard operation then a match is indicated if an indeterminate number of bytes in said data stream does not match a byte with said multiple wildcard operation code, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said inverse matching operation then a match is indicated if every byte except a byte with said inverse operation code matches a byte in said data stream, wherein if said flag bits contain bits indicating said last matching operation then a match is indicated if a byte in said data stream is a last byte in a pattern.