Discrete euclidean skeletons in increased resolution

Author(s)

Andre Vital Saude

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação
• Defense date: 2006-12-15

Examining board members

Roberto de Alencar Lotufo; Clésio Luis Tozzi; Gerald Jean Francis Banon; Shin Ting Wu; Ulisses de Mendonça Braga Neto

• Advisor: Roberto de Alencar Lotufo; Michel Couprie

Abstract

The extraction of Euclidean skeletons is a subject of great importance in the domain of image processing and it has been discussed by the scientiï?c community since more than 20 years.Today it is a consensus that Euclidean skeletons should present the following characteristics: thin, centered, homotopic and reversible, i.e., suff?cient for the reconstruction of the original object. In this work, we introduce the Exact Euclidean Medial Axis in Higher Resolution -HMA, with the objective of obtaining a medial axis which is thinner than the one obtained by the classical medial axis ded?nition. By combining the HMA with an ef ?cient parallel homotopic thinning algorithm we propose an Euclidean skeleton which is centered, homotopic, reversible and thinner than the existing similars in the literature. The proposed skeleton has the additional particularity of being unique and independent of arbitrary choices. Algorithms and proofs are given, as well as applicative examples of the proposed skeletons in real images, showing the advantages of the proposal. The text also includes an overview on algorithms for the Euclidean distance transform algorithms, the medial axis extraction, as well as homotopic skeletons (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 03/05037-8 - Segmentation and automated characterization of the hippocampus in MR images using mathematical morphology
• Grantee: André Vital Saúde
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate