Patent Document ID: 5548667
Application ID: 08301665
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for detecting fingers of a human hand, comprising the steps of: reading the hand and outputting image data of the hand in a form of two-dimensional pixel data; detecting edges of the hand on the basis of said pixel data; determining image lines as lines having the greatest number of edge pixels; determining the orientation line of the hand as the line having the average slope and Y intercept of said image lines; searching the pixel data for edge pixels wherein the search is statistically biased in a direction parallel to the orientation line; and clustering edge pixels defining said finger tips; wherein said steps of determining image lines and determining the orientation line include transforming a rectilinear coordinate system of said detected edges into a polar coordinate system, accumulating edge points in the parameter space, and obtaining the highest accumulated values for each of said lines to determine said orientation line of the hand.