There is disclosed an
image retrieval system for analyzing an image in a first
color model format and detecting and retrieving from the image a selected image portion. The
image retrieval system comprises an
image processor for converting pixels in the image from the first
color model format to a (Yr theta )
color model format, where Y is an intensity component indicating a total amount of light, r is a saturation component indicating an amount of
white light mixed with a color of each pixel, and theta is a
hue component indicating the color of each pixel. The
image processor groups spatially adjacent pixels into image regions according to
hue components of the adjacent pixels and performs a merging process wherein a first image region and an adjacent second image region are merged into a composite region if a
hue difference between the first and second image regions is less than a predetermined hue difference threshold. The process is repeated to continually merge regions of similar hue until no further merges can be performed.