Can photoshop do pattern recognition?

[ynachsho]

Hello All,

I have a challenge facing me and would like to pose a question to this board. (If I've posted it to the wrong board, please excuse me)

To what extent can I use scripting with Photoshop to perform automated pattern recognition?

Here's my Issue: As part of a manufacturing process, I need to measure two distinct, but concentric, roughly circular areas from an image of the cross section of a circular wire.

Area1: Inner core; identified as a solid Grey filled circle. Small diameter
Area2: Interior; composed of the inner core and other "stuff" (usually many small dark Gray colored hexagonal shapes surrounded by gold). Larger diameter

Both of these areas are concentric and surrounded by a thin outer gold layer.

I need to calculate the percent area of the inner core which equals (Area1/Area2)*100

I am looking for a script (or guidance on how to approach creating one) that would automatically find the edges of the inner core area and the Interior Area and output these values to a file. I need it to be done in as little user input as possible. (Ex: One click to select Area1, One-Two clicks to adjust accuracy of the selection, One click to select Area2, One-Two clicks to adjust accuracy of the selection, one click to save)

Dificulties:
1) The edges of the circles are not always well defined. Grey color bleeds through to the gold outer barrier due to lighting inconsistencies. (But the edge is intact to about 90% of the circumference ususally)
2) Finding the edges needs to be fairly accurate. At least as accurate as visually tracing them with a pen input device. Therefore Smoothing the selection after using magic wand often looses accuracy (due to #1)

I can get the edges sharp with levels, contrast, etc... Using Magic wand is close, but if the tolerance is too small I get better edges, but It grabs too much in the center of the circle. If the tolerance is too large, I loose the edge accuracy. Oh, and I know (roughly) the diameter of each circle before hand (so I guess I can automate trimming the image to my target areas)

Any suggestions? Do I have to look into specialized pattern recognition software? I hope someone will be able to help me approach this challenge.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Sean

[fromage]

I'm curious to see an example image.

Have you tried looking online for Matlab toolboxes? I used a free download of a toolbox that examined images for lens distortion calculation, in the efficient manner it sounds like you need for your task. Might not be out there...but worth a google. Problem is, you'd then need Matlab.

[lurch]

ImageJ, developed at the National Institutes of Health, might do what you want. It's free, and available for Mac, PC, and Linux (maybe more). To my knowledge, Photoshop won't do the job. Then again, I don't claim to know all there is to know about Photoshop.