Automated quality assurance image processing system

Claim 1

An image processing system for converting optical images into corresponding digital data, said system comprising: a. sensing means for generating digital sensor signals corresponding to an image, said digital sensor signals having a fill factor; b. compressing means for compressing said digital sensor signals to generate compressed signals, said compressed signals having a compression ratio; c. autosizing image processing system for automatically detecting an image window within an image, for eliminating digital sensor signals outside said window, and for automatically determining and controlling the size of an image and its associated scanning parameters when unable to determine assigned codes regarding the same, the autosizing image processing system comprising: a realtime multidiscriminant processor of image video data prioritized to minimize overscanning and need to rescan or reject incorrect or missing data codes and thereby maximize the input scan rate throughput, including: logic means to detect the most likely first corner encountered of an image border although it may be skewed or fuzzy or offset excessively; statistical means to recognize two or more most likely corners of an image border although it may be skewed or fuzzy or offset excessively; contrast comparator means to statistically recognize the most likely extremes of the image content Xmin, Ymin, Xmax, Ymax although it may be a noisy image or without any detectable border or has one that is skewed or fuzzy or offset beyond normally acceptable margins; and scan conversion means for employing interpolation and decimation to vary the window size and the number of scan lines and picture elements therein thereby providing improved image quality.