The combination of methods works better than does either method alone.

An improved adaptive method of processing image data in an artificial neural network has been developed to enable automated, real-time recognition of possibly moving objects under changing (including suddenly changing) conditions of illumination and perspective. The method involves a combination of two prior object-recognition methods — one based on adaptive detection of shape features and one based on adaptive color segmentation — to enable recognition in situations in which either prior method by itself may be inadequate.