Patent ID: 7708411

Claim:
A method for centroid detection in an image, comprising: a) acquiring an X×Y size image represented by a variable pixel signal intensity; b) compressing the X×Y size image to an X/n×Y/m size image, where n, m equal any integers and X/n, Y/m are integer values; c) determining a background intensity for any position in the compressed image and subtracting this background from the compressed image; d) detecting a plurality of approximately positioned centroids in the background-subtracted compressed image; e) iterating step (d) until approximate positions of a desired plurality of centroids are detected; f) converting the approximate position of the desired plurality of centroids into more exact positions in the X×Y size image, whereby every centroid position in the image has been identified; g) iterating step (f) until a desired level of more exact positions is determined; and h) assigning a quality factor to each centroid in relation to a magnitude of positional change for each centroid in each iteration of step (g).