Digital Image Processing

Chapter 9: Morphological
Image Processing
 Mathematic Morphology
 used to extract image components that are
useful in the representation and description of
region shape, such as
 boundaries extraction
 skeletons
 convex hull
 morphological filtering
 thinning
 pruning

2
 Mathematic Morphology
mathematical framework used for:
 pre-processing

 noise filtering, shape simplification, ...

 enhancing object structure
 skeletonization, convex hull...
 Segmentation
 watershed,…
 quantitative description
 area, perimeter, ...
3
 Z2 and Z3

 set in mathematic morphology represent

objects in an image
 binary image (0 = white, 1 = black) : the
element of the set is the coordinates (x,y)
of pixel belong to the object  Z2
 gray-scaled image : the element of the set
is the coordinates (x,y) of pixel belong to the
object and the gray levels  Z3

4
Basic Set Theory

5
Reflection and Translation
Bˆ  {w | w  b, for b  B}
( A) z  {c | c  a  z, for a  A}

6
Logic Operations

7
Example

8
 Structuring element (SE)
 small set to probe the image under study
 for each SE, define origo
 shape and size must be adapted to geometric
properties for the objects

9
 Basic idea
 in parallel for each pixel in binary image:
 check if SE is ”satisfied”
 output pixel is set to 0 or 1 depending on
used operation

10
 How to describe SE
 many different ways!
 information needed:
 position of origo for SE
 positions of elements belonging to SE

11
 Basic morphological operations
 Erosion

 Dilation

keep general shape but

 combine to smooth with respect to

 Opening object
 Closening background

12
 Erosion
 Does the structuring element fit the
set?
erosion of a set A by structuring element
B: all z in A such that B is in A when
origin of B=z

A  B  {z|(B)z  A}
shrink the object

13
Erosion

14
Erosion

15
Erosion

A  B  {z|(B)z  A}
16
 Dilation
 Does the structuring element hit the
set?
 dilation of a set A by structuring
element B: all z in A such that B hits A
when origin of B=z

A  B  {z|( Bˆ )z  A  Φ}
 grow the object
17
Dilation

18
Dilation

19
 Dilation

B = structuring element

A  B  {z|( Bˆ )z  A  Φ}
20
Dilation : Bridging gaps

21
 useful
 erosion
 removal of structures of certain shape and
size, given by SE
 Dilation
 filling of holes of certain shape and size,
given by SE

22
 Combining erosion and
dilation
 WANTED:
 remove structures / fill holes
 without affecting remaining parts

 SOLUTION:
 combine erosion and dilation
 (using same SE)

23
 Erosion : eliminating irrelevant
detail

structuring element B = 13x13 pixels of gray level 1

24
 Opening
erosion followed by dilation, denoted ∘

A  B  ( A  B)  B
 eliminates protrusions
 breaks necks
 smoothes contour

25
Opening

26
Opening

27
Opening

A  B  ( A  B)  B
A  B  {( B) z | ( B) z  A} 28
 Closing
dilation followed by erosion, denoted •

A  B  ( A  B)  B
 smooth contour
 fuse narrow breaks and long thin gulfs
 eliminate small holes
 fill gaps in the contour
29
Closing

30
Closing

31
Closing

A  B  ( A  B)  B
32
 Properties
Opening
(i) AB is a subset (subimage) of A
(ii) If C is a subset of D, then C B is a subset of D B
(iii) (A B) B = A B
Closing
(i) A is a subset (subimage) of AB
(ii) If C is a subset of D, then C B is a subset of D B
(iii) (A B) B = A B

Note: repeated openings/closings has no effect!

33
 Duality
 Opening and closing are dual with respect
to complementation and reflection

( A  B)  ( A  Bˆ )
c c

34
35
36
Useful: open & close

37
Application: filtering

38
 Hit-or-Miss Transformation
⊛ (HMT)
 find location of one shape among a set of shapes
”template matching

 composite SE: object part (B1) and background

part (B2)
 does B1 fits the object while, simultaneously,
B2 misses the object, i.e., fits the background?
39
 Hit-or-Miss Transformation

A  B  ( A  X )  [ A  (W  X )]
c

40
Boundary Extraction

 ( A)  A  ( A  B)
41
Example

42
Region Filling
X k  ( X k 1  B)  A c
k  1,2,3,...

43
Example

44
Extraction of connected
components

45
Example

46
X  ( X  B )  A i  1,2,3,4 and k  1,2,3,...
i
k
i
k
i

Convex hull
 A set A is is
said to be
convex if
the straight
line segment
joining any
two points
in A lies
4
entirely
within A. C ( A)   D i
i 1 47
48
 Thinning

A  B  A  ( A  B)
 A  ( A  B) c

49
Thickening
A  B  A  ( A  B)

50
 K
S ( A)   Sk ( A)
Skeletons k 0

Sk ( A)  ( A  kB)  ( A  kB)  B
K  max{ k | ( A  kB)  }

K
A   (Sk ( A)  kB)
k 0

51
52
H = 3x3 structuring element of 1’s X1  A {B}

Pruning
8
X 2  ( X1  B )
k
k 1

X3  (X2  H )  A
X 4  X1  X 3

53
54
55
56
57
5 basic structuring elements

58