Apparatus and a method for storage and retrieval of image patterns
US4020463A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 27, 1976 |
| Grant date | Apr 26, 1977 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 27, 1996 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N1/411
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A line image or a line signature is optically scanned to generate digital signals for storage in an image matrix. These digital signals represent black and white cells defining the line signature or line image and are initially processed by tracing the image boundary. During the tracing a "thinning" or "peeling off" operation is performed that evaluates black cells in the image matrix for conversion into white cell digital signals. This thinning or peeling off process, also identified as data compression, continues until the line signature or line image is composed of a single cell thickness. The final phase of the data compression operation includes another boundary tracing of the one cell thick image, and connecting a sequence of boundary points defining each black cell to form a string of vectors which represent the signature. The resulting vector catalog comprises a composition of data including a vector starting point and vector directions which are encoded and stored for future retrieval. When a stored line signature or line image is to be retrieved for display, the encoded vector data is recalled from storage to generate on a cathode ray tube the original vector data. This o…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.