"find and replace" a graphic in an image?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

<janefirenze2004@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1127072485.697212.316720@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> is there any software which can find and replace all occurances of a
> graphic (defined by selecting an square area) in an image with another
> graphic of same size?
>
> I want to convert a color pattern for black and white printing.thx
>
> Jane
>

If you can solve this problem, you will have solved the fundamental problem
of machine vision. If you patent the solution, you will become wealthy
beyond the dreams of avarice and will probably win a Nobel prize.

Such a thing is possible in an object-oriented graphics environment in which
each screen element is formally defined, usually in a database sense, but
computer image recognition is incredibly difficult in a bit-mapped graphic
environment. Think about it-- you would be asking a computer to "decide" if
a particular set of colored dots in an image is _approximately_ "similar"
(in the geometric similar triangles sense) to another set of colored dots
contained within the same image, while asking it to simulaneously decide
which dots to include/exclude in each comparision. While humans can do this
sort of thing with varying degrees of ease and success (witness the old
"Where's Waldo" craze) it ain't easy for computers at all
..