A threshold selection method from gray level histograms

This paper describes a computational approach to edge detection. The success of the approach depends on the definition of a comprehensive set of goals for the computation of edge points. These goals must be precise enough to delimit the desired behavior of the detector while making minimal assumptions about the form of the solution. We define detection and localization criteria for a class of edges, and present mathematical forms for these criteria as functionals on the operator impulse response. A third criterion is then added to ensure that the detector has only one response to a single edge. We use the criteria in numerical optimization to derive detectors for several common image features, including step edges. On specializing the analysis to step edges, we find that there is a natural uncertainty principle between detection and localization performance, which are the two main goals. With this principle we derive a single operator shape which is optimal at any scale. The optimal detector has a simple approximate implementation in which edges are marked at maxima in gradient magnitude of a Gaussian-smoothed image. We extend this simple detector using operators of several widths to cope with different signal-to-noise ratios in the image. We present a general method, called feature synthesis, for the fine-to-coarse integration of information from operators at different scales. Finally we show that step edge detector performance improves considerably as the operator point spread function is extended along the edge.

A Computational Approach to Edge Detection

Texture is one of the important characteristics used in identifying objects or regions of interest in an image, whether the image be a photomicrograph, an aerial photograph, or a satellite image. This paper describes some easily computable textural features based on gray-tone spatial dependancies, and illustrates their application in category-identification tasks of three different kinds of image data: photomicrographs of five kinds of sandstones, 1:20 000 panchromatic aerial photographs of eight land-use categories, and Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) multispecial imagery containing seven land-use categories. We use two kinds of decision rules: one for which the decision regions are convex polyhedra (a piecewise linear decision rule), and one for which the decision regions are rectangular parallelpipeds (a min-max decision rule). In each experiment the data set was divided into two parts, a training set and a test set. Test set identification accuracy is 89 percent for the photomicrographs, 82 percent for the aerial photographic imagery, and 83 percent for the satellite imagery. These results indicate that the easily computable textural features probably have a general applicability for a wide variety of image-classification applications.

Textural Features for Image Classification

Multiresolution representations are effective for analyzing the information content of images. The properties of the operator which approximates a signal at a given resolution were studied. It is shown that the difference of information between the approximation of a signal at the resolutions 2/sup j+1/ and 2/sup j/ (where j is an integer) can be extracted by decomposing this signal on a wavelet orthonormal basis of L/sup 2/(R/sup n/), the vector space of measurable, square-integrable n-dimensional functions. In L/sup 2/(R), a wavelet orthonormal basis is a family of functions which is built by dilating and translating a unique function psi (x). This decomposition defines an orthogonal multiresolution representation called a wavelet representation. It is computed with a pyramidal algorithm based on convolutions with quadrature mirror filters. Wavelet representation lies between the spatial and Fourier domains. For images, the wavelet representation differentiates several spatial orientations. The application of this representation to data compression in image coding, texture discrimination and fractal analysis is discussed. >

/pdf/a-theory-for-multiresolution-signal-decomposition-the-530tw5pzq7.pdf

A theory for multiresolution signal decomposition: the wavelet representation

We make an analogy between images and statistical mechanics systems. Pixel gray levels and the presence and orientation of edges are viewed as states of atoms or molecules in a lattice-like physical system. The assignment of an energy function in the physical system determines its Gibbs distribution. Because of the Gibbs distribution, Markov random field (MRF) equivalence, this assignment also determines an MRF image model. The energy function is a more convenient and natural mechanism for embodying picture attributes than are the local characteristics of the MRF. For a range of degradation mechanisms, including blurring, nonlinear deformations, and multiplicative or additive noise, the posterior distribution is an MRF with a structure akin to the image model. By the analogy, the posterior distribution defines another (imaginary) physical system. Gradual temperature reduction in the physical system isolates low energy states (``annealing''), or what is the same thing, the most probable states under the Gibbs distribution. The analogous operation under the posterior distribution yields the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the image given the degraded observations. The result is a highly parallel ``relaxation'' algorithm for MAP estimation. We establish convergence properties of the algorithm and we experiment with some simple pictures, for which good restorations are obtained at low signal-to-noise ratios.

/pdf/stochastic-relaxation-gibbs-distributions-and-the-bayesian-4c0mbkv82j.pdf

Stochastic Relaxation, Gibbs Distributions, and the Bayesian Restoration of Images

From the Publisher:
The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) and its member companies carried out a study in 1997 to investigate the state of the art in technologies to annotate and manipulate large-scale networks of multimedia information objects with content-based concepts. Content-Based Access to Multimedia Information: From Technology Trends to State of the Art documents the study's technology assessment and identifies shortcomings where further research and integration of technologies are needed, to meet anticipated application requirements. The major points highlighted in this book can be used as cornerstones for defining advanced research and development directions and opportunities to exploit the content available in networks of large-scale multi-media sources.

Content-Based Access to Multimedia Information: From Technology Trends to State of the Art

In this paper we propose a new model,Frenet-Serret motion, for the motion of an observer in a stationary environment. This model relates the motion parameters of the observer to the curvature and torsion of the path along which the observer moves. Screw-motion equations for Frenet-Serret motion are derived and employed for geometrical analysis of the motion. Normal flow is used to derive constraints on the rotational and translational velocity of the observer and to compute egomotion by intersecting these constraints in the manner proposed in (Duric and Aloimonos 1991) The accuracy of egomotion estimation is analyzed for different combinations of observer motion and feature distance. We explain the advantages of controlling feature distance to analyze egomotion and derive the constraints on depth which make either rotation or translation dominant in the perceived normal flow field. The results of experiments on real image sequences are presented.

Egomotion analysis based on the Frenet-Serret motion model

Content-Based Access to Multimedia Information

Fast language acceptance by shrinking cellular automata

Some contour properties can be derived in parallel by a string or cycle of automata in linear time, faster than can be done with a single processor. In particular, the intersection points of two contours, the straightness of a line, the union or intersection of two contours, and polygonal approximations of a contour are computed in linear time.

Azriel Rosenfeld

Papers

Content-Based Access to Multimedia Information: From Technology Trends to State of the Art

Egomotion analysis based on the Frenet-Serret motion model

Content-Based Access to Multimedia Information

Fast language acceptance by shrinking cellular automata

Parallel Computation of Contour Properties