Removing narrow blobs in an image --- please help!

Hi,

    I need to write something in Java that can remove long narrow blobs
in an image - say for a black blobs on a mainly white image. Problem
is though - I don't know how to do it. Can you help me please?

Here is what I have so far. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/
comments/code-samples that you may be able to offer.

Cheers,
Colm

***** CODE AS FOLLOWS ******

        // Remove long narrow blobs from an image. Not nice round
blobs - just long thin ones.
        private static ImageProcessor RemoveLongNarrowBlobs
(ImageProcessor inputImage, int someVariables)
        {
         // 1. Make a copy of the original image - this is where the
new image will go
            ImageProcessor outputImage = new ShortProcessor
(inputImage.getWidth(), inputImage.getHeight());
            outputImage = outputImage.convertToRGB();

            // 2. Member variables
            int origPixel;
            int pixAfterWhiteMap;

            // 3. Cycle through the dimentsion of the original image
and do the business
            for (int i = 0; i < inputImage.getWidth(); i++)
            {
                    for (int j = 0; j < inputImage.getHeight(); j++)
                    {
                     // For each pixel get a white map
                     origPixel = inputImage.get(i,j);
                     pixAfterWhiteMap = origPixel & 0xFFFFFF; //white

                     if(pixAfterWhiteMap > 0) //not black
                     {

                     }

                    }//j
            }//i

            return outputImage;

        }