Charles I Lambert

US Patent:

42440297, Jan 6, 1981

Filed:

Dec 12, 1977

Appl. No.:

5/859403

Inventors:

James J. Hogan - Akron OH
Charles O. Lambert - Akron OH
Gene A. Wallace - Akron OH

Assignee:

Goodyear Aerospace Corporation - Akron OH

International Classification:

G06F 15336
G06K 962

US Classification:

364728

Abstract:

A digital video correlator wherein a reference image and a live image are digitized and compared against each other in a shifting network to determine the correlation or degrees thereof existing between the two images. Fundamentally, the invention includes a video digitizer which divides live and real images from various sources into picture elements and digitizes those elements to fixed voltage levels. The digitized live image is passed to a dynamic memory consisting of a plurality of interconnected shift registers while the digitized reference image is maintained within a first set of shift registers comprising a portion of a processor. A second set of shift registers within the processor maintain therein a mask function. Yet a third set of shift registers within the processor are interconnected in parallel to the dynamic memory to receive, under control of a clock, the digitized data of the live image. As the live image data is shifted through the third set of shift registers, single-bit correlators interconnecting corresponding bits of each of the first, second, and third sets of shift registers, compare the digitized values of the corresponding bits, with such comparison being enabled or negated by the mask function.