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US 6,650,788 B1Granted
Expandable binary morphological erosion operator
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorReitseng Lin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A binary morphological erosion operator image processor which operates on images of any size and dimension with a structuring element of any dimension and shape. The erosion operations are all processed in the 1D domain by first decomposing the image and structuring element into a series of 1D slices, and then further segmenting the structuring element into a plurality of shorter 1D segments. These segments are processed in parallel using an array of parallel processors. Once the erosion operations are completed, the resulting 1D slices are composed into a final eroded image.
Claims24
A method for producing an eroded binary image, comprising the steps of:
- defining a structuring element for an uneroded image comprised of a plurality of binary pixels;
- segmenting the structuring element into at least two segments;
- and
- producing an eroded image comprised of a plurality of binary pixels by operating on the uneroded image with the at least two segments of the structuring element, wherein the at least two segments of structuring element operate in parallel to reduce the computational complexity of the erosion operation and increase the speed of the erosion operation.
1 more element
A method for producing an N-dimensional eroded binary image, comprising the steps of:
- (a) defining an N-dimensional structuring element for an N-dimensional uneroded image, wherein both the structuring element and the image are comprised of a plurality of binary pixels;
- (b) decomposing both the N-dimensional structuring element and the uneroded image into a plurality of one-dimensional slices of pixels;
- (c) segmenting each one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element into at least two segments;
- (d) producing a plurality of one-dimensional slices of an eroded binary image by operating on selected ones of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the uneroded image with the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element;
- (e) combining the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the uneroded image to attain an N-dimensional eroded binary image of the uneroded image, wherein the at least two segments of each one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element operate in parallel to reducing the computational complexity of the erosion operation and to increase the speed of the erosion operation.
2 more elements
A method for producing an N-dimensional eroded image from an N-dimensional uneroded image, comprising the steps of:
- (a) defining an N-dimensional structuring element for an N-dimensional uneroded image, wherein both the structuring element and the uneroded image are comprised of a plurality of binary pixels;
- (b) decomposing both the N-dimensional structuring element and the N-dimensional uneroded image into a plurality of one-dimensional slices of pixels;
- (c) segmenting each one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element into at least two segments;
- (d) employing the at least two segments of a first one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element to operate in parallel on a first one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the uneroded image;
- (e) shifting the result of the parallel operation of one of the at least two segments of the first one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element;
- (f) performing a first AND operation on the shifted result to generate a plurality of one-dimensional erosion arrays;
- and
- (g) performing a second AND operation on the plurality of one-dimensional erosion arrays to generate a single one-dimensional slice of the erosion of the N-dimensional uneroded image.
5 more elements
An image processing system for producing an eroded binary image, comprising:
- a structuring element defined for an uneroded image comprised of a plurality of binary pixels;
- segmenting means for segmenting the structuring element into at least two segments;
- and
- erosion means for producing an eroded image comprised of a plurality of binary pixels by operating on the uneroded image with the at least two segments of the structuring element, wherein the at least two segments of structuring element operate in parallel to reduce the computational complexity of the erosion operation and increase the speed of the erosion operation.
1 more element
An image processing system for processing an image comprised of an array of binary pixels, comprising:
- an N-dimensional structuring element comprised of an array of pixels;
- a decomposing unit for decomposing both an N-dimensional image comprised of an array of binary pixels and the N-dimensional structuring element into a plurality of one-dimensional slices of pixels;
- segmenting means for segmenting each one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element into at least two segments;
- operating means by which a first one of the at least two segments of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the structuring element operate in parallel on a first one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the image;
- means for shifting the result of the operating means;
- a plurality of intermediate AND operators coupled to the operating means and to the shifting means for generating a plurality of one-dimensional erosion arrays;
- and
- a final AND operator coupled to the intermediate AND operators for generating a single one-dimensional slice of the erosion of the image.
5 more elements
An expandable one-dimensional binary morphological erosion operator, comprising:
- at least one input port for receiving a plurality of one-dimensional slices of an image;
- a plurality of erosion processing units coupled to the at least one input port for performing an erosion operation on each one of the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the uneroded image using a predetermined structuring element, wherein the predetermined structuring element is decomposed into a plurality of one-dimensional slices which are segmented into at least two segments which operate in parallel on the plurality of one-dimensional slices of the image, and wherein each erosion processing unit generates a one-dimensional output;
- and
- at least one intermediate AND processing unit coupled to the plurality of erosion processing units, wherein each one of the at least one intermediate AND processing units generate a one-dimensional erosion output.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.