Edge detection by Helmholtz principle. (English) Zbl 0988.68819

Desolneux, Agnès; Moisan, Lionel; Morel, Jean-Michel

J. Math. Imaging Vis. 14, No. 3, 271-284 (2001).

Summary: We apply to edge detection a recently introduced method for computing geometric structures in a digital image, without any a priori information. According to a basic principle of perception due to Helmholtz, an observed geometric structure is perceptually “meaningful” if its number of occurences would be very small in a random situation: in this context, geometric structures are characterized as large deviations from randomness. This leads us to define and compute edges and boundaries (closed edges) in an image by a parameter-free method. Maximal detectable boundaries and edges are defined, computed, and the results compared with the ones obtained by classical algorithms.

MSC:

68U99	Computing methodologies and applications
68U10	Computing methodologies for image processing

Keywords:

image analysis; perception; large deviations