Patent Document ID: 4368462
Application ID: 06278696
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of providing a digital representation of graphic information on a document wherein the document has been scanned and a signal representative of the graphic information at progressive pixel points on the document has been generated, including the following steps storing the signal representative of the graphic information in a memory device through an input path, retrieving the signal representative of the graphic information and feeding the signal through the input path and back to the memory device, providing serial processing and data analysis to the signal representative of the graphic information on a reiterative basis as the signal is repeatably stored and retrieved and with the serial processing and data analysis including the following steps, providing pixel arrays from pluralities of adjacent pixels and providing data reduction to center elements, during the serial processing and data analysis, when the pixel arrays have desired characteristics and with all of the graphic information in the signal concentrated to center elements in accordance with the pixel arrays and with surviving pixels which are not part of an array stored and an attribute representative of the level of survival also stored with the surviving pixels, repeating the above step on a reiterative basis using the surviving center elements from the previous step to form the pixel arrays until there are no more surviving pixel arrays so that the stored surviving pixels and their attributes represent the centroids of the lines of the graphic document and the attributes represent the thickness of the lines, and providing pixel arrays from the stored surviving pixels and comparing the pixel arrays with fixed criteria for providing gap filling and elimination of undesired pixels.