Hexagonal Pixels and Indexing Scheme for Binary Images

A scheme for resampling binaryimage data from a rectangular grid to a regular hexagonal grid and an associated tree - structured pixel - indexing scheme keyed to the level of resolution have been devised. This scheme could be utilized in conjunction with appropriate image - data - processing algorithms to enable automated retrieval and/or recognition of images. For some purposes, this scheme is superior to a prior scheme that relies on rectangular pixels: One example of such a purpose is recognition of fingerprints, which can be approximated more closely by use of line segments along hexagonal axes than by line segments along rectangular axes. This scheme could also be combined with algorithms for query - image - based retrieval of images via the Internet.