METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE EXTERIOR POINTS OF AN OBJECT IN A BACKGROUND

Accessing the exterior points of an object is used in the area of object identification when it is important to use the information in the local exterior environment of an object in order to extract a feature which may be useful for object recognition. Examples of this type of feature which are important for recognizing and classifying objects occur in the area if bacterial detection. Adaptive classification is a way of making the analysis independent of variations in imaging conditions, such as lighting, positioning, electronic amplification, etc. Two general methods can be used to access the local exterior environment of an object, knowing the perimeter points of the object. In the first method, the shape of an annular exterior region around the object of interest can be made to follow the shape of the object itself. In the second method, an known exterior shape, such as a circle, is used to characterize the exterior contour region, approximating the shape of the object.