Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for identifying and characterizing boundaries in digital images and other digital data sets. At least two points within a digital image are selected. Clusters of sample points around the points are chosen. A pixel value histogram is generated for each sample point cluster. These histograms define frequency functions. The distance between the frequency functions, called a “density distance” is calculated and analyzed. The nature of the density distance is then used to determine if the two areas are relatively uniform, or if they indicate a presence of a boundary. To further refine the procedure, the method may be applied iteratively by modifying cluster variances, sizes, and distributions, and then reanalyzing the frequency functions generated.

Abstract: A method for inspecting a surface of a moving strip to detect surface defects, which includes forming at least one digital picture of at least one face of the strip, in which the digital picture is made up of a set of successive rows of picture elements, each of which is assigned a digital value. The method also includes filtering the at least one digital picture to detect surface irregularities by detecting relative variations in the digital values, and processing the at least one filtered digital picture to identity a type of surface defect corresponding to each detected irregularity. Further, prior to the processing step, an overall characterization of each of the irregularities is performed by determining, a value of predetermined parameters characteristic of surface defects, and a prior classification of the irregularities is performed based on the determined values of the parameters, according to a set of predefined classes.

Abstract: A method of diagnosing nutritious condition of crop in a plant field is disclosed.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for locating features of an object using varied lighting. The apparatus includes an image processor which is configured to send a plurality of commands to a digital camera which is used to obtain a plurality of digital images of an object without moving a location of the digital camera and the object. The image processor is arranged to receive the digital images of the object from the digital camera and the image processor is configured to control a level of illumination from at least one light source for illuminating the object. The image processor includes an illumination changer, a subtracter, an analyzer, and a controller to control and coordinate the illumination changer, the subtracter, and the analyzer. The illumination changer changes a level of illumination of any of the at least one lighting source before the image processor sends a command to the digital camera to obtain a next digital image.

Abstract: A method and computer program for extracting an embedded message from a digital image, the embedded message being formed by convolution with a carrier, employs a message template indicating the relative locations of data in the embedded message, the relative locations of the data being such that the autocorrelation of the message template is strongly peaked. An arbitrary region of the digital image is correlated with the carrier to extract a cyclically shifted message from the digital image. The absolute value of the cyclically shifted message is taken to form a positive valued cyclically shifted message. The positive valued cyclically shifted message is correlated with the message template to form a shifted offset image having a peak amplitude representing the location of the message boundary. The location of the message boundary is employed to extract the hidden message.

Abstract: Cameras (10, 12) produce first and second images (14, 16) of an object (18) from different viewpoints. An image partitioning module (54) partitions the images (14, 16) into a plurality of vertically striped regions (70), such that each region (70) of the first image (14) corresponds to a region (70) of the second image (16). A region alignment module (55) vertically shifts a region (70) of the first image (14) in a direction calculated to vertically align a portion (30) of the region (70) with a substantially matching portion (32) of the corresponding region (70). A disparity calculation module (62) calculates at least one disparity value between at least a portion (30) of the vertically shifted region (70) and at least a portion (32) of the corresponding region (70).

Abstract: A digital watermark information judging method is provided for detecting digital watermark information which is embedded in at least one element of digital data by altering at least one data value of the element. The method first estimates the data value of the element by using data values of at least two neighboring elements of data located near the element, then compares the estimated data value with an actual data value of the element to detect the amount of the alteration, and judges the presence and value of the digital watermark information based on the amount of the alteration.

Abstract: A method of generating a authentication code (“MAC”) with improved error tolerance exhibits improved survivability against acceptable signal distortions such as recompression. A method of generating a message authentication code associated with an image includes receiving blocks of image coefficient data where each coefficient has an original value falling within a range of values. The range of values is divided into first and second regions both having allowed coefficient values, and an error tolerance buffer region formed between the first and second regions having disallowed coefficient values. The original values of DC coefficients from each block of the image coefficient data is mapped to a modified value contained in one of the first and second regions, but not contained in the error tolerance buffer region. A MAC is generated as a function of the most significant bits of the modified image coefficient values.

Abstract: A method and computer program/system for cropping a digital image includes inputting a belief map of a photographic image, (a belief value at a location in the belief map indicates an importance of a photographic subject at the same location in the photographic image), selecting a zoom factor and a crop window, clustering regions of the belief map to identify background portions, secondary portions and main portions, positioning the crop window such that the crop window is centered around a main portion having a highest belief value, moving the crop window such that the crop window is included completely within the image, moving the crop window such that a sum of belief values is at a maximum, and cropping the image according to the crop window.

Abstract: A method of producing an image of at least a portion of a digital image that includes pixels includes computing a belief map of the digital image, by using the pixels of the digital image to determine a series of features and using such features to assign the probability of the location of a main subject of the digital image in the belief map determining a crop window having a shape and a zoom factor, which determine a size of the crop window and cropping the digital image to include a portion of the image of high subject content in response to the belief map and the crop window.

Abstract: The acquisition of 3-D scenes by a single hand-held camera is disclosed. The camera is preferably mounted on a lens attachment with four mirrors, enabling stereo capturing of the scene. The signal processing tasks involved, camera calibration and correspondence estimation, are each disclosed. Both fixed and self-calibration methods benefit from the use of the lens attachment to acquire a scene. Specifically, full self-calibration of the camera is enabled, without loss of absolute scale as seen in prior art stereo self-calibration methods. Accurate 3-D models are obtained with the method of the invention.

Abstract: A method of inserting an additional information item for authenticating a digital signal decomposed into a set of coefficients (Xij), each coefficient being represented in 16 bits, and the additional information being represented by a set of binary values (wij) of the same size as the set of coefficients (Xij), includes the steps of calculating (E5, E6), for at least one coefficient (Xij), a check bit (Cij) in accordance with a predetermined operation as a function of the first 15 bit planes of the coefficient (Xij), of calculating (E7, E8) a last bit plane (X0ij) in accordance with a predetermined rule which is reversible as a function of the check bit (Cij) and a binary value (wij) of the additional information item (W) and of substituting (E7) the last calculated bit plane (X0ij) for the last bit plane of the coefficient (Xij).

Abstract: To extract a target object having a desired size from a bidimensonal image, horizontal direction filtering suppresses image components less than the desired size in the horizontal direction and thereby outputs a result of horizontal filtering. At the same time, vertical direction filtering suppresses image components less than the desired size in the vertical direction and thereby outputs a result of vertical filtering. The results of the horizontal and vertical filtering are superposed to produce a final filtered result corresponding to the target object. During the filtering, pixel data making up the bidimensonal image are sequentially connected in the vertical or horizontal direction in a preselected connecting area to produce gradation sequence of the pixels and then subjected to FFT to transform the gradation sequence into frequency domain and to thereby frequency selection to select desired harmonics components corresponding to the target object from the FFT result.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining a shape of a shim that can be inserted between a first body, such as a strut torque box, and a second body, such as a torque box skin, is disclosed. The strut torque box is marked with a plurality of retro-reflective markers at the desired locations needing to be shimmed. The positions of the markers are measured using digital photogrammetry equipment yielding a plurality of measured points. The measured points define a surface of the first body. The locations of the measured points are transformed relative to a surface of the second body to yield a profile of the shape of the shim. The present method and apparatus have the advantage of considerably reducing the labor required for manual shim measurement using gauges by allowing multiple shim points to be measured simultaneously and without the pre-assembly of the strut torque box and torque box skin.

Abstract: A light-and-shade inspection apparatus and method therefor include an image pick-up device for picking up an image of an object across a dimension (e.g., width) thereof to produce an image data, a projection operational portion for calculating a projection data by adding together a predetermined number of the image data, the image data being produced at each scan of the image pick-up device at a predetermined position along the width of the object, a background lightness operational portion for calculating, based on the projection data produced by the projection operational portion, a background lightness of the object across its width, and a difference operational portion for subtracting the background lightness produced by the background lightness operational portion from the image data produced by the image pick-up device, thereby substantially eliminating variations of the background lightness across the width of the object from the image data.

Abstract: According to the principles of the invention, there is provided a system for generating a message authentication code for a conventional digital video stream. The system operates on the rows and columns of block data for a video stream, and more specifically on histograms of DC coefficients from each row and column, to produce a compact code that is nonetheless descriptive of the underlying images in the video stream. The message authentication code can be reproduced from the images of a received video stream, and if desired, compared with a digital watermark embedded in the video stream in order to confirm the accuracy of the video content or identify the source of the video stream.

Abstract: A method for improving the signal quality of a digital watermark utilizing measurements of signal and noise values of multiple digital watermark estimates is provided. In particular, each digital watermark estimate is weighted by a function of its signal to noise ratio and then summed to form an improved digital watermark.

Abstract: An image processing device for a vehicle according to the present invention has an edge extractor for emphasizing edges of a traffic lane in a front road image signal generated by a digital image pick-up device, a threshold setter for setting a threshold to extract the edges of the traffic lane based on the result detected by the edge extractor, an outline extractor for extracting an outline of the traffic lane to generate an outline data based on the result detected by the edge extractor and the threshold set by the threshold setter, a noise eliminator for eliminating noise components from the outline data, a white line detector for detecting lane-indicating lines based on the outline data from which the noise components have been eliminated, an attitude change detector for estimating the attitude of the vehicle based on the detected lane-indicating lines, and a target advance direction detector for detecting a target direction to advance the vehicle based on the result obtained by the white line detector an