Patent Document ID: 4718105
Application ID: 06585258
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus, operative on input signals representative of coordinates of intercepts along substantially parallel scans of a two-dimensional image, for encoding the graphic information therein by generation of a series of output records representative of significant graphic data, such data including branch junction type and coordinate data, the apparatus comprising: data compression means for extracting coordinates of a run of like-valued signals along a scan line; correlating means for correlating coordinates for a given run from the data compression means with a new or previously scanned vector; vector memory means (i) for storing data pertaining to each vector with respect to which the correlating means has correlated run data and (ii) for storing in an ordered sequence during encoding, vector records, each record containing data representative of the image scanned on at least one preceding scan line; processing means, operative on coordinates of the given run and on data read from the vector memory means related to a correlated vector, for determining whether the given run's coordinates define a continuation of the correlated vector to within a prescribed degree of accuracy; clearing means for clearing the data related to the correlated vector from the vector memory means when the processing means determines that the given run's coordinates do not represent a continuation of the vector to within the prescribed degree of accuracy and for causing data corresponding to the correlated vector to be given as an output; arithmetic logic means, for comparing the data output from the clearing means with data from corresponding vector records to determine the occurrence of branch junctions and generate data representative thereof; control means, in communication with the arithmetic logic means and with the vector memory means, for causing the outputs of output records, including data from vector records and branch junction data, when the arithmetic logic means has determined the occurrence of a branch junction; and artifact removal means, in communication with the arithmetic logic means, for removing artifact irregularities in the graphic image having at least one dimension smaller than a threshold, so that information derived from scanning such irregularities does not appear in the output records; fuzz elimination means, for suppressing from being output data representative of a graphic feature which branches out from another scanned feature for less than a number of scan lines corresponding to the threshold.