morphology

morphology — morphological operators, rank filters and related image analysis

Stability Level

Stable, unless otherwise indicated

Functions

int vips_morph ()
int vips_rank ()
int vips_median ()
int vips_countlines ()
int vips_labelregions ()
int vips_fill_nearest ()

Types and Values

Includes

#include <vips/vips.h>

Description

The morphological functions search images for particular patterns of pixels, specified with the mask argument, either adding or removing pixels when they find a match. They are useful for cleaning up images --- for example, you might threshold an image, and then use one of the morphological functions to remove all single isolated pixels from the result.

If you combine the morphological operators with the mask rotators (vips_rot45(), for example) and apply them repeatedly, you can achieve very complicated effects: you can thin, prune, fill, open edges, close gaps, and many others. For example, see `Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing' by A. Jain, pp 384-388, Prentice-Hall, 1989 for more ideas.

Beware that VIPS reverses the usual image processing convention, by assuming white objects (non-zero pixels) on a black background (zero pixels).

The mask you give to the morphological functions should contain only the values 0 (for background), 128 (for don't care) and 255 (for object). The mask must have odd length sides --- the origin of the mask is taken to be the centre value. For example, the mask:

3 3 128 255 128 255 0 255 128 255 128

applied to an image with vips_morph() VIPS_OPERATION_MORPHOLOGY_ERODE, will find all black pixels 4-way connected with white pixels. Essentially, dilate sets pixels in the output if any part of the mask matches, whereas erode sets pixels only if all of the mask matches.

See vips_andimage(), vips_orimage() and vips_eorimage() for analogues of the usual set difference and set union operations.

Functions

vips_morph ()

int
vips_morph (VipsImage *in,
            VipsImage **out,
            VipsImage *mask,
            VipsOperationMorphology morph,
            ...);

Performs a morphological operation on in using mask as a structuring element.

The image should have 0 (black) for no object and 255 (non-zero) for an object. Note that this is the reverse of the usual convention for these operations, but more convenient when combined with the boolean operators. The output image is the same size as the input image: edge pxels are made by expanding the input image as necessary.

Mask coefficients can be either 0 (for object) or 255 (for background) or 128 (for do not care). The origin of the mask is at location (m.xsize / 2, m.ysize / 2), integer division. All algorithms have been based on the book "Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing" by A. Jain, pp 384-388, Prentice-Hall, 1989.

For VIPS_OPERATION_MORPHOLOGY_ERODE, the whole mask must match for the output pixel to be set, that is, the result is the logical AND of the selected input pixels.

For VIPS_OPERATION_MORPHOLOGY_DILATE, the output pixel is set if any part of the mask matches, that is, the result is the logical OR of the selected input pixels.

See the boolean operations vips_andimage(), vips_orimage() and vips_eorimage() for analogues of the usual set difference and set union operations.

Operations are performed using the processor's vector unit, if possible. Disable this with --vips-novector or IM_NOVECTOR.

[method]

Parameters

in

input image

 

out

output image.

[out]

mask

morphology with this mask

 

morph

operation to perform

 

...

NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments

 

Returns

0 on success, -1 on error


vips_rank ()

int
vips_rank (VipsImage *in,
           VipsImage **out,
           int width,
           int height,
           int index,
           ...);

vips_rank() does rank filtering on an image. A window of size width by height is passed over the image. At each position, the pixels inside the window are sorted into ascending order and the pixel at position index is output. index numbers from 0.

It works for any non-complex image type, with any number of bands. The input is expanded by copying edge pixels before performing the operation so that the output image has the same size as the input. Edge pixels in the output image are therefore only approximate.

For a median filter with mask size m (3 for 3x3, 5 for 5x5, etc.) use

vips_rank( in, out, m, m, m * m / 2 );

The special cases n == 0 and n == m * m - 1 are useful dilate and expand operators.

See also: vips_conv(), vips_median(), vips_spcor().

[method]

Parameters

in

input image

 

out

output image.

[out]

width

width of region

 

height

height of region

 

index

select pixel

 

...

NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments

 

Returns

0 on success, -1 on error


vips_median ()

int
vips_median (VipsImage *in,
             VipsImage **out,
             int size,
             ...);

A convenience function equivalent to:

vips_rank( in, out, size, size, (size * size) / 2 );

See also: vips_rank().

[method]

Parameters

in

input image

 

out

output image.

[out]

size

size of region

 

...

NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments

 

Returns

0 on success, -1 on error


vips_countlines ()

int
vips_countlines (VipsImage *in,
                 double *nolines,
                 VipsDirection direction,
                 ...);

Function which calculates the number of transitions between black and white for the horizontal or the vertical direction of an image. black<128 , white>=128 The function calculates the number of transitions for all Xsize or Ysize and returns the mean of the result Input should be one band, 8-bit.

See also: vips_morph(), vips_conv().

[method]

Parameters

in

input image

 

nolines

output average number of lines.

[out]

direction

count lines horizontally or vertically

 

...

NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments

 

Returns

0 on success, -1 on error.


vips_labelregions ()

int
vips_labelregions (VipsImage *in,
                   VipsImage **mask,
                   ...);

Optional arguments:

  • segments : return number of regions found here

Repeatedly scans in for regions of 4-connected pixels with the same pixel value. Every time a region is discovered, those pixels are marked in mask with a unique serial number. Once all pixels have been labelled, the operation returns, setting segments to the number of discrete regions which were detected.

mask is always a 1-band VIPS_FORMAT_INT image of the same dimensions as in .

This operation is useful for, for example, blob counting. You can use the morphological operators to detect and isolate a series of objects, then use vips_labelregions() to number them all.

Use vips_hist_find_indexed() to (for example) find blob coordinates.

See also: vips_hist_find_indexed().

[method]

Parameters

in

image to test

 

mask

write labelled regions here

 

...

NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments

 

Returns

0 on success, -1 on error.


vips_fill_nearest ()

int
vips_fill_nearest (VipsImage *in,
                   VipsImage **out,
                   ...);

Optional arguments:

  • distance : output image of distance to nearest non-zero pixel

Fill outwards from every non-zero pixel in in , setting pixels in distance and value .

At the position of zero pixels in in , distance contains the distance to the nearest non-zero pixel in in , and value contains the value of that pixel.

distance is a one-band float image. value has the same number of bands and format as in .

See also: vips_hist_find_indexed().

[method]

Parameters

in

image to test

 

out

image with zero pixels filled with the nearest non-zero pixel

 

...

NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments

 

Returns

0 on success, -1 on error.

Types and Values

enum VipsOperationMorphology

More like hit-miss, really.

See also: vips_morph().

Members

VIPS_OPERATION_MORPHOLOGY_ERODE

true if all set

 

VIPS_OPERATION_MORPHOLOGY_DILATE

true if one set

 

VIPS_OPERATION_MORPHOLOGY_LAST

   

See Also

arithmetic