Scale specific and robust line/edge encoding of images

Claim 1

A method of encoding lines and or edges of selectable scale in an image, comprising the steps of: (a) capturing scale-specific line and or edge direction and position of linear structures of said image independently of resolution of said image; and (b) encoding said direction and position of said linear structures of said image into an oriented pixel representation of said image; wherein step (b) comprises encoding said direction and position in said oriented pixel representation of said image by determining projections of said image onto a discrete basis set of two-dimensional filters, wherein said two-dimensional filters comprise wavelets of a type including Gabor wavelets, and wherein said two-dimensional filters model steerable, scaleable and shiftable line and or edge detecting kernels using linear combinations of the detecting kernels.

Claim 2

A method of encoding lines and or edges of selectable scale in an image, comprising the steps of: (a) capturing scale-specific line and or edge direction and position of linear structures of said image independently of resolution of said image; and (b) encoding said direction and position of said linear structures of said image into an oriented pixel representation of said image; wherein step (b) comprises encoding said direction and position in said oriented pixel representation of said image by determining projections of said image onto a discrete basis set of two-dimensional filters, wherein said two-dimensional filters comprise wavelets of a type including Gabor wavelets, and wherein said two-dimensional filters model steerable, scaleable and shiftable line and or edge detecting kernels using linear combinations of the detecting kernels.

Claim 4

A method of encoding an image comprising the steps of: (a) digitizing an original image to produce a digitized image; (b) processing said digitized image to obtain an estimate of direction energy and the position of linear structures in said original image; (c) performing global and local normalization of the linear structures obtained in step (b); (d) conducting spatial and directional competition among said linear structures and determining winners of said competition; and (e) encoding said winners into strings of digital data codes representative of encoded winners, so as to form a structural description of said original image; wherein step (b) includes the steps of: (b1) calculating a plurality of projections of said original image onto a local basis set; (b2) estimating projections onto sine and cosine type wavelets of intermediary sizes and orientations, wherein said sine and cosine type wavelets comprise wavelets of a type including Gabor wavelets; (b3) determining total energy associated with each wavelet pair; (b4) estimating a line/edge phase shift; and (b5) obtaining a value of orthogonal shift relative to a center of a Gaussian envelope from the estimated line/edge phase shift.

Claim 5

A method of encoding an image comprising the steps of: (a) digitizing an original image to produce a digitized image; (b) processing said digitized image to obtain an estimate of direction energy and the position of linear structures in said original image; (c) performing global and local normalization of the linear structures obtained in step (b); (d) conducting spatial and directional competition among said linear structures and determining winners of said competition; and (e) encoding said winners into strings of digital data codes representative of encoded winners, so as to form a structural description of said original image; wherein step (b) includes the steps of: (b1) calculating a plurality of projections of said original image onto a local basis set; (b2) estimating projections onto sine and cosine type wavelets of intermediary sizes and orientations, wherein said sine and cosine type wavelets comprise wavelets of a type including Gabor wavelets; (b3) determining total energy associated with each wavelet pair; (b4) estimating a line/edge phase shift; and (b5) obtaining a value of orthogonal shift relative to a center of a Gaussian envelope from the estimated line/edge phase shift.

Claim 11

A system for encoding an image comprising: an image coupling mechanism which is operative to provide said image as a digitized image having a prescribed spatial resolution and a digital encoding resolution; a digital memory to which said digitized image is coupled for storage therein; and a digital image processor which is coupled to said digital memory and is operative to process said digitized image in accordance with the following image processing steps: (a) processing said digitized image to obtain an estimate of direction energy and the position of linear structures in said original image; (b) performing global and local normalization of the linear structures obtained in step (a); (c) conducting spatial and directional competition among said linear structures and determining winners of said competition; and (d) encoding said winners into strings of digital data codes representative of encoded winners, so as to form a structural description of said original image; wherein step (a) includes the steps of: (a1) calculating a plurality of projections of said original image onto a local basis set; (a2) estimating projections onto sine and cosine type wavelets of intermediary sizes and orientations, wherein said sine and cosine type wavelets comprise wavelets of a type including Gabor wavelets; (a3) determining total energy associated with each wavelet pair; (a4) estimating a line/edge phase shift; and (a5) obtaining a value of orthogonal shift relative to a center of a Gaussian envelope from the estimated line/edge phase shift.

Claim 12

A system for encoding an image comprising: an image coupling mechanism which is operative to provide said image as a digitized image having a prescribed spatial resolution and a digital encoding resolution; a digital memory to which said digitized image is coupled for storage therein; and a digital image processor which is coupled to said digital memory and is operative to process said digitized image in accordance with the following image processing steps: (a) processing said digitized image to obtain an estimate of direction energy and the position of linear structures in said original image; (b) performing global and local normalization of the linear structures obtained in step (a); (c) conducting spatial and directional competition among said linear structures and determining winners of said competition; and (d) encoding said winners into strings of digital data codes representative of encoded winners, so as to form a structural description of said original image; wherein step (a) includes the steps of: (a1) calculating a plurality of projections of said original image onto a local basis set; (a2) estimating projections onto sine and cosine type wavelets of intermediary sizes and orientations, wherein said sine and cosine type wavelets comprise wavelets of a type including Gabor wavelets; (a3) determining total energy associated with each wavelet pair; (a4) estimating a line/edge phase shift; and (a5) obtaining a value of orthogonal shift relative to a center of a Gaussian envelope from the estimated line/edge phase shift.