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| Electron beam system |
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| Numerical control method |
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| Electron-beam lithographic apparatus |
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| Drawing information processing method and apparatus |
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| Multiple reference frame controller for active filters and power line conditioners |
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| Control of large scale topography on silicon wafers |
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| Intelligent circuit breaker providing synchronous switching and condition monitoring |
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| Sensor system for printers |
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| Apparatus and methodology for automated filling of complex polygons |
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Image processing-system
| Details |
Inventors: Beg, Mirza R.; Perl, Julius;
Assignee: Imaging Technology Incorporated (Woburn, MA)
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
Level data on an output line (24) carrying the digitized output of a video camera and analog-to-digital converter (12) is processed by a combination circuit (10) to store in an acquisition memory (16) the results of a feature-identification or histogram operation. In a histogram operation, the memory locations of the acquistion memory (16) represent the bins into which the levels represented by the level data are sorted, and the contents of those locations indicate the number of picture elements whose levels fall in those bins. In feature identification, the contents of successive memory locations in the acquistion memory (16) contain the positions of those picture elements whose levels have a selected feature. Common circuitry performs both the histogram and feature-identification functions. To perform the histogram function, a counter (39), whose output provides the address for the acquisition memory (16), is operated to load the output of a look-up-table memory (22), which acts as an encoder to indicate the bin into which the level represented by the level signal belongs. An increment circuit (52) is then operated to read the contents of that location in the acquisition memory (16), increment it, and return the incremented value to the specified memory location. For feature identification, the contents of the look-up table (22) indicate whether the levels represented by the level signals have the selected features. A control circuit (30) monitors the output of the look-up-table memory and clocks the counter (39) whenever the selected feature is encountered. This changes the address for the random-access memory (16) to that of the next location in memory, and the increment circuit (52), which is incremented on the occurrence of every picture element to keep track of picture-element location, writes the position of the picture element having the selected feature into the next location in the random-access memory (16). |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The drawing depicts a combination sorting and feature-identification circuit that performs sorting in one mode and feature identification in another on the output of a source of digital signals representing levels in an image.
The source of the level signals may, for instance, be a television camera and analog-to-digital converter 12, although it will be apparent that the teachings of the present invention can be applied to the output of other sources of such signals.
Typically, a host computer 14 uses the results of the operation performed by the combination circuit 10.
These results are contained in an acquisition memory 16 and are passed to the host computer by means of an output buffer 18.
The typical image signals are digitized television video signals, in which the level information is generated as an image is scanned.
The combination circuit 10 processes the signals in real time, and, at the end of one or more frames, the acquisition memory 16 contains histogram or feature-identification information.
During vertical blanking--i.
e.
, when the source 12 generates no level information--the information in the memory 16 is transferred to the output buffer 18, from which the host computer 14 can fetch it at its own speed.
In the feature mode, further information is contained in a feature-count circuit 20, which is a register that contains the number of features detected.
The operation of the circuit in the feature-identification mode will be described first, and the sorting mode will be described later.
In the feature-identification mode, a look-up-table memory 22, which acts as an encoder, has locations corresponding to each possible level signal.
In each location, there is a code that indicates whether that level has the selected "feature.
" For example, the selected feature may be that the brightness is above a certain level.
In such a case, all of the locations whose addresses are below a certain number would contain zeros, indicating that those levels do not have the selected feature, while all locations whose addresses are above that number would contain ones, indicating that they do have the selected features
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Graphic Cards 
