Medial description of gray-scale image structure by gradient-limited diffusion

Daniel S. Fritsch

doi:10.1117/12.131071

22 September 1992 Medial description of gray-scale image structure by gradient-limited diffusion

Daniel S. Fritsch

Proceedings Volume 1808, Visualization in Biomedical Computing '92; (1992) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.131071
Event: Visualization in Biomedical Computing, 1992, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

Abstract

The representation of object shape in grayscale images is an important precursor to many common image interpretation needs, including recognition, registration, and measurement. Typically, such computer vision tasks have required the preliminary step of image segmentation, often via the detection of object edges. This paper presents a new means of describing grayscale object shape that obviates the need for edge-finding, i.e., classifying pixels as being inside or outside of an object boundary. Instead, this technique operates directly on the image intensity distribution to produce a set of `medialness' measurements at every pixel and across multiple spatial scales that capture more global properties of object shape. The application of an orientation-sensitive, gradient-limited diffusion model provides many of the benefits of global, multiscale structural analysis while preserving the local region- insulating effects of pixels having edge-like properties. The result of this procedure is a multiscale medial axis (MMA), which represents an object at multiple and simultaneous levels of scale, and which provides several desirable properties for describing the shape of grayscale forms.

Citation Download Citation

Daniel S. Fritsch "Medial description of gray-scale image structure by gradient-limited diffusion", Proc. SPIE 1808, Visualization in Biomedical Computing '92, (22 September 1992); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.131071

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