Morphological Image Processing (2)
Topics
Morphological Operations
Connected Component Extraction
Convex Hull
Thinning
Thickening
Skeleton
Pruning
Extension to gray level images
Dilation and Erosion
Dilation and Erosion are two basic operations in
morphological processing.
Dilation of a set A in Z2 by a set B in Z2 is denoted by
A B and given by
Dilation
The dilation of A by B is the set of all displacements
such that A and overlap with at least one point
B is called structuring element
Dilation
Erosion
Erosion of a set A in Z2 by a set B in Z2 is denoted by
and given by:
Erosion of A be B is the set of all points z such that B
translated by z is contained in A
Erosion
Opening
Opening smoothes the outer contours, breaks narrow
connections, and eliminates small protrusions.
Opening is defined as :
Closing
Closing smoothes the object contour, fuses narrow
connections, eliminates small holes and gaps.
Extraction of Connected Components
Begin with a point P inside the connected component,
iterate:
Until Xk = Xk-1
Initially X0 = P
Connected Component Extraction
Convex Hull
A set is said convex if the straight line connecting any
two points of the set lies entirely within A.
Convex Hull of set S is the smallest convex set A that
contains S
The set difference A-S is called the convex deficiency
of S
Computing Convex Hull
Let Bi for i=1,2,3,4 represent the structuring elements
shown below
Convex Hull
Repeat the following equation until converge
with
is the Hit-or-Miss operator
4
Assuming Convex Hull is C ( A) D i
i 1
Example (Convex Hull)
Improving Convex Hull Algorithm
The algorithm can be improved by limiting the growth
of the algorithm beyond the maximum dimensions of
the original set.
Thinning and Thickening
Thinning is an image-processing operation in which
binary valued image regions are reduced to lines
The purpose of thinning is to reduce the image
components to their essential information for further
analysis and recognition
Thickening is changing a pixel from 1 to 0 if any
neighbors of the pixel are 1.
Thickening followed by thinning can be used for
filling undesirable holes.
Thinning followed by thickening is used for
determining isolated components and clusters.
Thinning
Thinning is defined in terms of hit or miss as
where B is a sequence of structuring elements like
{B} = {B1, B2, B3, …, Bn} and the operation can be given
as
Thinning
Sample set of structuring elements
Thinning Example
Thickening
Thickening is the morphological dual of thinning and
defined as
or
Thickening Example
Skeleton
The informal definition of a skeleton is a line
representation of an object that is:
one-pixel thick,
through the "middle" of the object, and,
preserves the topology of the object.
Skeleton
Skeleton is defined by
where
k is the last iterative step before A erodes to an empty
set
Skeleton Example
Pruning
Thinning and skeletonizing algorithms need a clean-up
post-processing
The following steps are used for pruning:
Thinning
Restore to original form with end points removed
Dilate end points
Find the union of X1 and X3
Pruning Example
Original image and structuring elements
Pruning Example
Result of thinning and end points detected
Pruning Example
Dilation of end points and the pruned image
Extension to Gray Level
Dilation is expressed in 1D as
Erosion is given by
Extension to Gray Level (2D Case)
Dilation
Erosion
Questions?
