Extraction of salient apexes from an image by using the function at the primary visual cortex

The mechanism of human vision has become clearer as a result of physiological study. So this paper proposes a method, which is based on the structure and function of primary visual cortex in the human brain, to extract salient apexes from an image. It extracts potential apexes by using the local gradient of brightness. Also it selects salient apexes from the potential apexes by using the functions of the cells which show the inhibited response to long lines and the activated response to different directions of lines. This method can extract the features from not only images but also drawings, such as drawings of characters, electric circuits, facilities, etc