Image correspondence techniques using serial neighborhood processing

Claim 1

A method of detecting correspondence between multiple frames of image data, each frame represented by a matrix of pixels, said method comprising the steps of: transforming the matrix representing a first frame of image data in at least one serial neighborhood processing stage by a predetermined number of electronic erosion sequences thereby reducing the matrix to a plurality of discrete islands of pixels; transforming the matrix representing a second frame of image data in at least one serial neighborhood processing stage by performing the predetermined number of electronic erosion sequences to reduce the matrix associated with the second frame to a plurality of discrete islands of pixels; removing, from the matrix representing the first frame of image data, all discrete islands of pixels which consist of a plurality of pixels, to leave a first transformed matrix containing a first plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; removing, from the matrix representing the second frame of image data, all discrete islands of pixels which consist of a plurality of pixels, to leave a second transformed matrix containing a second plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; storing, for each of the two pluralities of single points, the coordinates of the single points; and labeling each single point in a transformed matrix having exactly one single point in the other transformed matrix satisfying a predetermined spatial relationship with its location in the other transformed matrix, whereby the correspondence between multiple frames of image data is detected.

Claim 2

A method of detecting correspondence between multiple frames of image data, each frame represented by a matrix of pixels, said method comprising the steps of: transforming the matrix representing a first frame of image data in at least one serial neighborhood processing stage by a predetermined number of electronic erosion sequences thereby reducing the matrix to a plurality of discrete islands of pixels; transforming the matrix representing a second frame of image data in at least one serial neighborhood processing stage by performing the predetermined number of electronic erosion sequences to reduce the matrix associated with the second frame to a plurality of discrete islands of pixels; removing, from the matrix representing the first frame of image data, all discrete islands of pixels which consist of a plurality of pixels, to leave a first transformed matrix containing a first plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; removing, from the matrix representing the second frame of image data, all discrete islands of pixels which consist of a plurality of pixels, to leave a second transformed matrix containing a second plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; storing, for each of the two pluralities of single points, the coordinates of the single points; and labeling each single point in a transformed matrix having exactly one single point in the other transformed matrix satisfying a predetermined spatial relationship with its location in the other transformed matrix, whereby the correspondence between multiple frames of image data is detected.

Claim 4

A method of registering multiple frames of image data each represented by a matrix of pixels, said method comprising the steps of: a. transforming a first pixel matrix associated with a first frame of image data by electronically eroding it in a first predetermined number of serially connected neighborhood processing stages to produce a first transformed matrix containing a first plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; b. transforming a second pixel matrix associated with a second frame of image data by electronically eroding it in a second predetermined number of serially connected neighborhood processing stages to produce a second transformed matrix containing a second plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; c. storing, for each of the two pluralities of single points, the coordinates of the single points; d. labeling each nonconnected pixel in a transformed matrix having exactly one nonconnected pixel in the other transformed matrix satisfying a predetermined spatial relationship with its location in the other transformed matrix; e. removing each unlabeled nonconnected pixel from its transformed matrix, thereby reducing the transformed matrices to a form where each nonconnected pixel in one reduced matrix has a corresponding nonconnected pixel in the other reduced matrix; f. determining the spatial relationship between pairs of nonconnected pixels in the reduced matrices; g. transforming one frame of pixel data into registration with the other frame as a function of the spatial relationship between corresponding pixels in the two reduced matrices; and h. comparing the one frame and the transformed other frame to detect differences therebetween.

Claim 5

A method of registering multiple frames of image data each represented by a matrix of pixels, said method comprising the steps of: a. transforming a first pixel matrix associated with a first frame of image data by electronically eroding it in a first predetermined number of serially connected neighborhood processing stages to produce a first transformed matrix containing a first plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; b. transforming a second pixel matrix associated with a second frame of image data by electronically eroding it in a second predetermined number of serially connected neighborhood processing stages to produce a second transformed matrix containing a second plurality of single points of nonconnected pixels; c. storing, for each of the two pluralities of single points, the coordinates of the single points; d. labeling each nonconnected pixel in a transformed matrix having exactly one nonconnected pixel in the other transformed matrix satisfying a predetermined spatial relationship with its location in the other transformed matrix; e. removing each unlabeled nonconnected pixel from its transformed matrix, thereby reducing the transformed matrices to a form where each nonconnected pixel in one reduced matrix has a corresponding nonconnected pixel in the other reduced matrix; f. determining the spatial relationship between pairs of nonconnected pixels in the reduced matrices; g. transforming one frame of pixel data into registration with the other frame as a function of the spatial relationship between corresponding pixels in the two reduced matrices; and h. comparing the one frame and the transformed other frame to detect differences therebetween.