Image recognition method using two-dimensional stochastic grammars

Abstract

A method of automatically identifying bitmapped image objects. Each of a set of templates in an object template library is compared with all areas of like size of a bitmapped image. A set of signals is generated for each such comparison that satisfies a defined matching criteria between the template and the image area being compared. The set of signals identifies the object based on the matching template, the location of the object in the image and an indication of the goodness of the match between the object and the template. A series of possible parse trees are formed that describe the image with a probability of occurrence for each tree. Each parent node and its child nodes of each parse tree satisfies a grammatical production rule in which some of the production rules define spatial relationships between objects in the image. The one of the possible parse trees which has the largest probability of occurence is selected for further utilization.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.