Method and apparatus for associating the color of an object with an event

Computer apparatus for automatically identifying an object in a plurality of Internet video frames, and associating the object with a link action, comprising:

• a graphical user interface (GUI);
• user pointing structure;
• and
• at least one computer coupled to the graphical user interface and to said user pointing structure, said at least one computer executing the steps of:
• determine a location in one of said Internet video frames displayed on said GUI where said user pointing structure has identified the object;
• determine a color value of the object in said one video frame displayed on said GUI, including determining a color boundary of the object by providing color pixels on the boundary with an edge which is not visible to a user, the edge comprising a portion of an invisible wire frame in which color values of the determined object pixels define the invisible wire frame edges, the color values of the invisible wire frame varying from frame to frame, the color value comprising a combination of color values for first, second, and third different colors;
• determine a color value range for each of the color values for the first, second, and third different colors of the determined object, each color value range including a continuous series of integer color values, the step of determining each color value range including the steps of (i) determining a histogram for each of the color values for the first, second, and third different colors of the determined object, (ii) determining the peak color value of the histogram for each of the first, second, and third different colors, (iii) determining a variance of the peak color value of the histogram for each of the first, second, and third different colors, and (iv) for each of the first, second, and third different colors, assigning color range values corresponding to at least one standard deviation of the determined variance, the peak color value of each histogram consisting essentially of the highest number of data values for each color value for each of the first, second, and third different colors;
• automatically associate a link action with the combined color value of said determined location on the object in said one video frame;
• and
• automatically associate said link action with the combined color value on the object in succeeding video frames, without pre-processing the invisible wire frame of said succeeding video frames.