Abstract: Disclosed is a method for characterizing the content of a digital image. A component of the method is the homogeneity measure, which calculates a value or values based on the local similarity of portions of a sample area. A further component is a means of optimally adjusting the shape and offset of the local sample area to improve the resulting measure. The homogeneity measure may be applied at a higher level to segment an image, by grouping together larger portions of an image whose sub-components are locally similar. A strongly homogeneous region is a contiguous region composed of elements exhibiting local homogeneity better than that of surrounding elements, and may be applied to identify the scale and other characteristics of a portion of an image. This may be used to facilitate algorithms that separate lighting and texturing information, and in identifying the composition of an image.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for user interaction with animated objects displayed in a repeatedly updated 3-D computer simulated environment using 2-D cursor and button input. The invention provides for user manipulation of 3-D objects in a simulation where conflicting goals may be simultaneously applied to the objects and resolved. All goals acting on an object are translated to equivalent information in terms of physical forces, and are applied as forces via a physically based model, where this model has no knowledge as to the source of each force. Each user is treated as an entity in the environment, with a positional presence. The positional presence of a user is represented by a user object displayed in the simulation. The invention provides a unique interface to a real-time simulation that is easy to use, by virtue of mapping a subset of the inputs to actions consistent with the expectation of the user actually being physically present within the environment.