METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY INSCRIBING NOISY OBJECTS IN SCANNED IMAGE DATA WITHIN A MINIMUM AREA RECTANGLE

A minimum area rectangle inscription method and system for automatically generating a minimum area rectangle that inscribes and bounds an approximately rectangular object (or “noisy” object) contained within scanned image data. The minimum area rectangle inscription method chooses an interior point located inside the object boundary and determine perimeter points located on the boundary. A convex hull is constructed from at least some of the perimeter points such that each side of the convex hull is convex. Inscribing rectangles, equal in number to the sides of the convex hull, are constructed such that each inscribing rectangle shares a side with the convex hull and circumscribes approximately the entire convex hull. The area of each of the inscribing rectangles is calculated, and the inscribing rectangle having the least amount of area is designated as the minimum area rectangle.