Object detection using colour

Presents a method to detect objects in images using colour. The system learns by example how characteristic each discrete colour is of a class of objects using two sets of training images; one set is of images known to contain at least one target object, while the other set is of images known to be free of the target objects. Using the training images a lookup table is constructed, in which each discrete colour is assigned a value which approximates the probability that pixels with this discrete colour are part of a target object. This table is called the colour profile. To detect the presence of target objects in a new image the colour profile values are back projected onto the image and the image is thresholded. A suitable threshold is calculated automatically and the system is able to recognize if the target objects are not able to be distinguished by the colour profile method. Applying the colour profiling approach to a difficult inspection task has shown it to be a robust, accurate and fast solution.