Method and mechanism for analyzing the texture of a digital image

A computer-readable volatile or non-volatile storage medium storing instructions for analyzing digital images, wherein processing of the instructions by one or more processors causes:

• performing an image operation on gray scale image data to identify intensity transitions of a first digital image,
• wherein the gray scale image data is a digital representation of a gray scale version of the first digital image, and
• wherein the gray scale image data comprises a set of data values, wherein each data value of the set of data values identifies a gray scale value of a sequence of gray scale values;
• determining, for at least a subset of data values, in the set of data values, a slope value for an intensity transition associated with the data value;
• converting the slope value, associated with each data value in the subset of data values, to a possible slope value of a bounded set of possible slope values;
• and
• generating first slope data, for the first digital image, that describes a frequency of occurrence, across the subset of data values, of each possible slope value, of the bounded set of possible slope values.

An apparatus for analyzing digital images, the apparatus comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions ;and
• one or more processors, wherein processing of the instructions by the one or more processors causes:
• performing an image operation on gray scale image data to identify intensity transitions of a first digital image,
• wherein the gray scale image data is a digital representation of a gray scale version of the first digital image, and
• wherein the gray scale image data comprises a set of data values, wherein each data value of the set of data values identifies a gray scale value of a sequence of gray scale values;
• determining, for at least a subset of data values, in the set of data values, a slope value for an intensity transition associated with the data value;
• converting the slope value, associated with each data value in the subset of data values, to a possible slope value of a bounded set of possible slope values;
• and
• generating first slope data, for the first digital image, that describes a frequency of occurrence, across the subset of data values, of each possible slope value, of the bounded set of possible slope values.