Generalised object recognition

Object recognition from machine vision is a complex task that has, to date, no formal method of solution. The use of brightness contours instead of edges and the corresponding contour profile diagram, or fingerprint, can provide mathematically non-intensive comparisons that can be efficiently performed in a database. More than that, this method provides a formalism which claims to be appropriate for all machine vision. This, the first of two papers, outlines the general problem, the current solution and provides preliminary results. The second paper deals in greater depth with data mining a library of known objects for matches and the final confirmation or rejection of the object identity.