METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING IMAGES

A method and apparatus for identifying images having different spatial characteristics divides the image into a predetermined number of image elements, determines whether each of the image elements is relatively light or relatively dark and assigns a white designation or a black designation to each image element as a result of this determination. The number of white designated and black designated image elements are counted, as are the number of like designated image elements adjacent to each image element. The counts thus obtained are compared with corresponding counts resulting from known images, and the image is identified when a match within a predetermined tolerance is found.