Method and apparatus for automatic object identification

A computer-readable recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon that causes a computer to identify objects in an image, the program causing the computer to perform operations comprising:

• identifying terrain types in the image;
• generating a second image identifying areas of the image which border regions of different intensities by identifying a gradient magnitude value for each pixel of the image;
• generating a filtered image from the second image, the filtered image identifying potential objects which have a smaller radius than the size of a filter and a different brightness than background pixels surrounding the potential objects;
• comparing the second image and the filtered image to identify potential objects as an object, a potential object is identified as an object if the potential object has a gradient magnitude greater than a threshold gradient magnitude, and the threshold gradient magnitude is based on the terrain type identified in the portion of the image where the potential object is located.