Patent · US Expired

Pipeline image processor

US5046190A · kind A · utility

53Cited by
26References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 6, 1988
Grant dateSep 3, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 6, 2008

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T1/20
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An image morphological processing system is formed by a cascade of a plurality of transformation stages. A pair of handshake data flow control lines couple each pair of adjacent stages. One line carries a first signal indicating when the previous stage has data available at its output and the other line carries a second signal which designates when the subsequent stage is able to receive data from the previous stage. In order that first and second signals can propagate in an orderly manner through a long cascade of stages, each signal is delayed by one cycle of the signal which clocks image data through the cascade. The delayed signal is then coupled to the next stage along the cascade. By controlling the propagation of the control signals to correspond to that of the image data the integrity of the data is maintained. Each stage also includes a circuit which detects when an idempotent transformation is performed by that stage.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.