METHOD OF DETECTING AND SEGMENTING CHARACTERISTICS AREAS IN A PICTURE, AND USE OF THE METHOD

摘要

In a method of detecting and segmenting characteristic regions in an image, such as a colour image having characteristic regions, where the image is represented by a plurality of pixel values expressed in grey tones, a circle of radius r is defined for a plurality of pixel positions, which radius approximated is regarded as the radius of a characteristic region. The optimum value of radius r is determined by calculating, for a large number of possible values of r, the difference between the characteristic grey tone value of an outer zone having the radius range r1 to qr1 (=r2), where q is a constant, and the characteristic grey tone value of an inner zone having the radius range 0 to r1. Then the radius r1 providing the greatest difference is selected as the radius of the object. Further, the radius of the characteristic region is adjusted by an adjustment factor, and finally the characteristic region is divided into sectors, each of which is again subjected to a grey tone analysis, as mentioned above, following which the characteristic region is changed from being circular to being non-circular. The invention allows a very high degree of detail information of e.g. images that show cell cores in very small dimensions.