Patent Document ID: 6058209
Application ID: 08349581
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for resolving redundant identifications of an object in an image, comprising the steps of: (a) identifying a group of potentially redundant objects in an image; (b) sorting the identified objects in a predetermined order to create a sorted list of objects, the initial object in the list having an initial characteristic value and the last object in the list having a last characteristic value; (c) defining an object status variable, the object status variable having one of a first and a second value; (d) assigning the first value of the object status variable to the initial object in the sorted list; (e) comparing each respective object subsequent to the initial object to each object having a characteristic value less than the characteristic value of the respective, subsequent object and having the first value of the object status variable, wherein each respective, subsequent object is defined as a first object and each object having a characteristic value less than the characteristic value of the first object is defined as a second object for each comparison; (f) determining whether each respective second object has a characteristic value contained within a predetermined range of the characteristic value of the first object, thereby assigning one of the first and the second status values of the object status variable to each respective first object and to each respective second object in order to resolve redundant identifications of an object in the image; and (g) identifying the objects having the first value of the object status variable of step (f) as non-redundant objects and retaining the non-redundant objects.