Image processing system

Claim 2

An image processing system comprising: means for converting the image to be processed into a plurality of representative image cells; and means for concurrently arranging representations of said cells in accordance with a predetermined pattern to produce a geometrically transformed representation of the image, successive geometric transformations of the image being congruent irrespective of changes in scale or angular orientation of the image.

Claim 3

The system of claim 1 in which said converting means comprises a plurality of light receptors arranged in an array defining an image-receiving plane.

Claim 4

The system of claim 2 in which said arranging means comprises an array of light-responsive elements each of which is optically connected to a corresponding one of said receptors such that each of said elements produces a signal representative of one of said image cells.

Claim 5

The system of claim 2 in which said light receptors are arranged in a grid pattern defining a complex logarithmic coordinate system.

Claim 6

The system of claim 3 or 4 in which said light-responsive elements are arranged in an image-display pattern defining a rectilinear coordinate system.

Claim 7

The system of claim 4 in which said light receptors are arranged in a pattern defined by a plurality of exponentially spaced concentric rings intersected by a plurality of equilangularly spaced radial lines.

Claim 9

A system as in claim 7 for handling an object providing said image, in combination with: means for producing said image from said object, and means responsive to the magnitude and direction of said shift for manipulating said object.

Claim 11

A system as in claim 9 for handling an object providing said image, in combination with: means for producing said image from said object, and means responsive to the magnitude and direction of said shift for manipulating said object.

Claim 12

An image-processing system comprising: means producing a plurality of picture cells representative of an image to be processed; and means for concurrently converting said cells into respective transformed cells representative of a transformed version of said image, which image version is invariant in size and shape with respect to rotations and dilations of said image.

Claim 13

An image-processing system comprising: means producing a plurality of picture cells representative of an image to be processed; and means for concurrently converting said cells into respective transformed cells representative of a transformed version of said image, which image version is invariant in size and shape with respect to rotations and dilations of said image.

Claim 14

A system as in claim 11, wherein each of said transformed cells is derived from an original cell by a complex logarithmic transformation.

Claim 15

A system as in claim 11 wherein each of said transformed cells is derived from an original cell by a tranformation from an exponential ray/ring grid to a Cartesian grid.

Claim 16

A system as in claim 12 wherein each of said transformed cells is derived from an original cell by a transformation from a grid formed by orthogonal logarithmic spirals to a skewed Cartesian grid.

Claim 17

A system as in claim 12 wherein each of said transformed cells is derived from an original cell by a tranformation from a lattice of angularly related logarithmic spirals to an equilateral triangular lattice.

Claim 28

An image-processing system for a digitized image signal representative of an image having a plurality of picture cells arranged in a Cartesian grid with equally spaced rows and columns of cells, with one of said cells being an origin, and with each of said cells having a location defined by a set of individual Cartesian coordinates, and also having a state defined by respective data associated with said coordinates, said system comprising: means for transferring the data of each cell to a location having transformed coordinates representing a mapping of the cell's Cartesian coordinates upon a log-spiral coordinate system; means for shifting the locations of all said transformed coordinate cell data by the same amount representative of a desired image rotational displacement; and means for re-transferring said shifted-coordinate cell data to locations with re-transformed coordinates representing a mapping of log-spiral coordinates upon a Cartesian coordinate system, to produce a digitized image signal representative of a rotated version of said original image.

Claim 29

An image-processing system for a digitized image signal representative of an image having a plurality of picture cells arranged in a Cartesian grid with equally spaced rows and columns of cells, with one of said cells being an origin, and with each of said cells having a location defined by a set of individual Cartesian coordinates, and also having a state defined by respective data associated with said coordinates, said system comprising: means for transferring the data of each cell to a location having transformed coordinates representing a mapping of the cell's Cartesian coordinates upon a log-spiral coordinate system; means for shifting the locations of all said transformed coordinate cell data by the same amount representative of a desired image rotational displacement; and means for re-transferring said shifted-coordinate cell data to locations with re-transformed coordinates representing a mapping of log-spiral coordinates upon a Cartesian coordinate system, to produce a digitized image signal representative of a rotated version of said original image.

Claim 30

An image-processing system for a digitized image signal representative of an image having a plurality of picture cells arranged in a Cartesian grid with equally spaced rows and columns of cells, with one of said cells being an origin, and with each of said cells having a location defined by a set of individual Cartesian coordinates, and also having a state defined by respective data associated with said coordinates, said system comprising: means for transferring the data of each cell to a location having transformed coordinates representing a mapping of the cell's Cartesian coordinates upon a log-spiral coordinate system; means for shifting the locations of all said transformed coordinate cell data by the same amount representative of a desired image dilation; and means for re-transferring said shifted-coordinate cell data to locations with re-transformed coordinates representing a mapping of log-spiral coordinates upon a Cartesian coordinate system, to produce a digitized image signal representative of a dilated version of said original image.

Claim 31

An image-processing system for a digitized image signal representative of an image having a plurality of picture cells arranged in a Cartesian grid with equally spaced rows and columns of cells, with one of said cells being an origin, and with each of said cells having a location defined by a set of individual Cartesian coordinates, and also having a state defined by respective data associated with said coordinates, said system comprising: means for transferring the data of each cell to a location having transformed coordinates representing a mapping of the cell's Cartesian coordinates upon a log-spiral coordinate system; means for shifting the locations of all said transformed coordinate cell data by the same amount representative of a desired image dilation; and means for re-transferring said shifted-coordinate cell data to locations with re-transformed coordinates representing a mapping of log-spiral coordinates upon a Cartesian coordinate system, to produce a digitized image signal representative of a dilated version of said original image.

Claim 32

A system as in claim 21 or 22, further including: means for normalizing said digitized image signal by shifting the data of each of said cells to new coordinates differing from its original coordinates by an amount representing the displacement from said origin of a desired point of image rotation and/or dilation.

Claim 33

A system as in claim 23, further including: means for denormalizing said produced digitized image signal by shifting each cell data to new coordinates differing from its re-transformed coordinates by said displacement from origin.

Claim 34

A system as in claim 21 or 22 wherein said mapping is represented by W=e.sup.Z where Z is the complex number representation of each point of the Cartesian grid, and W is the complex number representation of each point of the log spiral coordinate system.

Claim 35

A system as in claim 21 or 22 wherein each ordinate line of the Cartesian grid is mapped into a circle of the log spiral coordinate system, and each abscissa line of the Cartesian grid is mapped into a radial line of said log spiral coordinate system.

Claim 36

A system as in claim 21 or 22, wherein said mapping is effected by transforming orthogonal lines of the Cartesian grid into respective orthogonal logarithmic spirals.

Claim 37

A system as in claim 21 or 22 wherein said mapping is effected by transforming an equilateral triangular lattice of the Cartesian grid into a lattice formed of angularly related logarithmic spirals.

Claim 38

An image-processing system for an image having a plurality of picture cells arranged in a Cartesian grid with equally spaced rows and columns of cells, and one of said cells being an origin, comprising: means for digitizing said cells; means for normalizing said cells to transfer said origin to a desired point of image rotation and/or dilation; means for transferring each of said cells having a Cartesian grid location defined by the complex number W=u+iv to a respective cell of a log spiral coordinate grid having a location defined by the complex number Z=e W ; means for shifting said latter cells vertically by an amount corresponding to desired image rotation; means for shifting said latter cells horizontally by an amount corresponding to a desired image dilation; means for re-transferring said shifted cells to respective corresponding locations in said Cartesian grid; means for denormalizing said cells to transfer said point of image rotation and/or dilation to said origin; and means for displaying said denormalized cells to provide an image which is a rotated and/or dilated version of said original image.

Claim 39

An image-processing system for an image having a plurality of picture cells arranged in a Cartesian grid with equally spaced rows and columns of cells, and one of said cells being an origin, comprising: means for digitizing said cells; means for normalizing said cells to transfer said origin to a desired point of image rotation and/or dilation; means for transferring each of said cells having a Cartesian grid location defined by the complex number W=u+iv to a respective cell of a log spiral coordinate grid having a location defined by the complex number Z=e W ; means for shifting said latter cells vertically by an amount corresponding to desired image rotation; means for shifting said latter cells horizontally by an amount corresponding to a desired image dilation; means for re-transferring said shifted cells to respective corresponding locations in said Cartesian grid; means for denormalizing said cells to transfer said point of image rotation and/or dilation to said origin; and means for displaying said denormalized cells to provide an image which is a rotated and/or dilated version of said original image.

Claim 40

A two-dimensional shift register comprising: a plurality of storage elements allocated to N columns and M rows, each of said columns containing M of said storage elements and each of said rows containing N of said storage elements; a first one of said rows being designated as an uppermost row, and an Mth one of said rows being designated as a lowermost row; a first one of said columns being designated as a leftmost column and an Nth one of said columns being designated as a rightmost column; each of said storage elements being adapted to have data entered into or read out of said storage element; means responsive to a first (e.g. "Shift Left") or a second (e.g. "Shift Right") predetermined signal for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements of certain columns to a corresponding one of said storage elements in the same row and a preselected number of columns closer to said "leftmost" column for said first signal or closer to said "rightmost" column for said second signal; and means responsive to a third (e.g. "Shift Up") or fourth (e.g. "Shift Down") signal for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements to a corresponding one of said storage elements in the same column and a preselected number of rows closer to said "uppermost" row for said third signal or closer to said "lowermost" row for said fourth signal.

Claim 41

A two-dimensional shift register comprising: a plurality of storage elements allocated to N columns and M rows, each of said columns containing M of said storage elements and each of said rows containing N of said storage elements; a first one of said rows being designated as an uppermost row, and an Mth one of said rows being designated as a lowermost row; a first one of said columns being designated as a leftmost column and an Nth one of said columns being designated as a rightmost column; each of said storage elements being adapted to have data entered into or read out of said storage element; means responsive to a first (e.g. "Shift Left") or a second (e.g. "Shift Right") predetermined signal for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements of certain columns to a corresponding one of said storage elements in the same row and a preselected number of columns closer to said "leftmost" column for said first signal or closer to said "rightmost" column for said second signal; and means responsive to a third (e.g. "Shift Up") or fourth (e.g. "Shift Down") signal for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements to a corresponding one of said storage elements in the same column and a preselected number of rows closer to said "uppermost" row for said third signal or closer to said "lowermost" row for said fourth signal.

Claim 42

A two-dimensional shift register in accordance with claim 30 further comprising: means responsive to said third signal for moving the data contained in each of said storage elements of said "uppermost" row to a corresponding one of said storage elements in the same column and a preselected number of rows from, said "lowermost" row; and means responsive to said fourth signal for moving the data contained in each of said storage elements of said "lowermost" row to a corresponding one of said storage elements in the same column and a preselected number of rows from, said "uppermost" row.

Claim 43

A two-dimensional shift register in accordance with claim 31 further comprising: means responsive to said second signal for storing into each of said storage elements of said "leftmost" column the data which was contained in that storage element previous to the activation of said second signal.

Claim 44

A two-dimensional shift register in accordance with claim 31, further comprising: means responsive to the activation of said first (e.g. "Shift Left") signal for resetting to zero each of said storage elements of said "rightmost" column.

Claim 45

Apparatus for performing transformations upon an image which is displayable within an image space which is divided into a plurality of picture cells arranged in a predetermined pattern for displaying in each cell a portion of said image, comprising: means for generating one or more control signals; a two-dimensional shift register including a plurality of storage elements arranged in N columns and M rows of said shift register, each of said columns containing M of said storage elements and each of said rows containing N of said storage elements, said register also including means for storing data representing the portion of said image displayable by each cell into the corresponding storage element or for reading data out of said storage elements, means responsive to a first one (e.g. SHIFT LEFT) of said control signals or a second one (e.g. SHIFT RIGHT) of said control signals for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements to a corresponding storage element in the same row and a preselected number of columns to the left or to the right, respectively, means responsive to a third one (e.g. SHIFT UP) of said transformation signals or a fourth one (e.g. SHIFT DOWN) of said transformation signals for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements to a corresponding storage element in the same column of storage elements and a preselected number of rows up or down, respectively; and means for displaying a transformed image including means for activating each of said picture cells in a predetermined manner responsive to the data stored in its corresponding ones of said storage elements.

Claim 46

Apparatus for performing transformations upon an image which is displayable within an image space which is divided into a plurality of picture cells arranged in a predetermined pattern for displaying in each cell a portion of said image, comprising: means for generating one or more control signals; a two-dimensional shift register including a plurality of storage elements arranged in N columns and M rows of said shift register, each of said columns containing M of said storage elements and each of said rows containing N of said storage elements, said register also including means for storing data representing the portion of said image displayable by each cell into the corresponding storage element or for reading data out of said storage elements, means responsive to a first one (e.g. SHIFT LEFT) of said control signals or a second one (e.g. SHIFT RIGHT) of said control signals for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements to a corresponding storage element in the same row and a preselected number of columns to the left or to the right, respectively, means responsive to a third one (e.g. SHIFT UP) of said transformation signals or a fourth one (e.g. SHIFT DOWN) of said transformation signals for moving the data stored in each of said storage elements to a corresponding storage element in the same column of storage elements and a preselected number of rows up or down, respectively; and means for displaying a transformed image including means for activating each of said picture cells in a predetermined manner responsive to the data stored in its corresponding ones of said storage elements.

Claim 47

Apparatus in accordance with claim 34 wherein: said picture cells are arranged as a Cartesian grid comprising equally spaced rows and columns of said cells, one of said cells comprising an origin point of said grid; each one of said columns of cells corresponding to one of said columns of storage elements of said two-dimensional shift register; and each one of said rows of cells corresponding to one of said rows of storage elements of said two-dimensional shift register.

Claim 50

A method as in claim 36 wherein said pattern is derived from a cartesian lattice by a complex logarithmic transformation.

Claim 53

A method as in claim 38 wherein said converting comprises deriving the location of each of said transformed cells from that of an original cell by a complex logarithmic transformation.

Claim 54

A method as in claim 39 wherein said transformation is from a cartesian grid to an exponential ray/ring grid.

Claim 55

A method as in claim 39 wherein said transformation is from a skewed cartesian grid to a grid formed by orthogonal logarithmic spirals.

Claim 56

A method as in claim 39 wherein said transformation is from an equilateral triangular lattice to a lattice of angularly related logarithmic spirals.

Claim 57

A method as in claim 36 or 38 further including the steps of: producing signals representative of a transformed version of a template of said image with selected scale and selected rotational orientation; shifting one of said transformed versions in simulation of incremental scale and rotational changes of said image until said shifted transformed version matches the other transformed representation match, whereby the nature of said shift is indicative of the scale and orientational relationship between said template image and said original image.

Claim 58

A method as in claim 43 wherein said image is derived from each of a plurality of geometrically similar physical objects of random orientations, and further comprising the step of: orienting each said physical object in accordance with said scale and orientational relationship, to provide a uniform orientation for said objects.

Claim 65

A method as in claim 47 wherein said shifting is performed horizontally on all picture cells by a fixed amount representing desired image dilation, for producing a signal representing a dilated version of said original image.

Claim 66

A method as in claim 47 wherein said shifting is performed vertically on all said picture cells by a fixed amount representing a desired image rotation, for producing a signal representing a rotated version of said original image.

Claim 67

Data processing apparatus comprising: a first set of data storage elements allocated respectively to the cells of a first (e.g. exponential ring and ray) coordinate grid; a second set of data storage elements allocated respectively to the cells of a second (e.g. Cartesian) coordinate grid; a data path coupling each storage element of said first set to the respective element of said second set having substantially the same coordinate values in said second coordinate grid as said first-set storage element has in said first coordinate grid; said data paths being adapted to transmit data between each storage element and its respective coupled storage element; and further data paths from each second-set elements having substantially the same value of either coordinate of said second-set storage element.

Claim 68

Data processing apparatus comprising: a first set of data storage elements allocated respectively to the cells of a first (e.g. exponential ring and ray) coordinate grid; a second set of data storage elements allocated respectively to the cells of a second (e.g. Cartesian) coordinate grid; a data path coupling each storage element of said first set to the respective element of said second set having substantially the same coordinate values in said second coordinate grid as said first-set storage element has in said first coordinate grid; said data paths being adapted to transmit data between each storage element and its respective coupled storage element; and further data paths from each second-set elements having substantially the same value of either coordinate of said second-set storage element.