Fast recursive grayscale morphology operators: from the algorithm to the pipeline architecture

• DOI: 10.1007/s11554-010-0171-8
• Publication Date: 2010-07-31T16:07:03Z
• Authors: Olivier Déforges; Nicolas Normand; Marie Babel
• Keywords: [INFO.INFO-TS]Computer Science [cs]/Signal and Image Processing; [INFO.INFO-TS] Computer Science [cs]/Signal and Image Processing; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology; [SPI.SIGNAL]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Signal and Image processing; [SPI.SIGNAL] Engineering Sciences [physics]/Signal and Image processing

This paper presents a new algorithm for an efficient computation of morphological operations for gray images and its specific hardware. The method is based on a new recursive morphological decomposition method of 8-convex structuring elements by only causal two-pixel structuring elements (2PSE). Whatever the element size, erosion or/and dilation can then be performed during a unique raster-like image scan involving a fixed reduced analysis neighborhood. The resulting process offers low computation complexity combined with easy description of the element form. The dedicated hardware is generic and fully regular, built from elementary interconnected stages. It has been synthesized into an FPGA and achieves high frequency performances for any shape and size of structuring element.