Grayscale image connected components segmentation

A system for reading images, comprising:

• means for decimating an image;
• means for normalizing the decimated image histogram;
• means for rebinning grayscale pixel data associated with the decimated image;
• means for reassigning a selected range of grayscales representing a region of interest of the remapped grayscale pixel data to one while zeroing others;
• means for labeling the connected pixels associated with the range of grayscales representing the region of interest;
• means for joining and extending the connected pixels through region growing using a pre-selected offset value;
• and
• means for filtering segmented regions of the connected pixels to eliminate certain candidates.

A machine readable medium containing code for reading images, comprising the steps of:

• decimating an image;
• normalizing the decimated image histogram;
• rebinning grayscale pixel data associated with the decimated image;
• reassigning a selected range of grayscales representing a region of interest of the remapped grayscale pixel data to one while zeroing others;
• labeling the connected pixels associated with the range of grayscales representing the region of interest;
• joining and extending the connected pixels through region growing using a pre-selected offset value;
• and
• filtering segmented regions of the connected pixels to eliminate certain candidates.