Thinning and segmenting handwritten characters by line following

This article presents a new thinning algorithm particularly well suited to handwriting characters or engineering drawing images. The line following scheme is used with major improvements to reduce the distortion at intersections. The new algorithm uses a thinning window to detect the shape and type of each intersection it is about to thin. This added information allows for a much more accurate thinning process. The algorithm also segments the skeleton into line segments as it is generated. These lines correlate partly with the strokes that produced the image. To analyze the performance of the new algorithm, a comparative study of the skeletons is performed over speed and quality criteria. This study shows that the algorithm reduces the distortion at the line intersections while remaining fast.     

基于单应矩阵的直线匹配

提出了在单应矩阵原理约束下进行直线匹配的算法。首先利用单应矩阵将从不同影像上提取出的直线集变换到同一影像坐标系下;然后结合直线自身的几何特性及其特性支持区域的灰度特性,初步确定同名直线;最后依据左右一致性准则,剔除错误匹配。当引入直线特性支持区域的灰度测度时,只考虑几何变形和灰度畸变较小的一侧,提高了匹配的可靠性。实验表明,该算法简单、易行,并有效解决了部分被遮挡直线以及断裂直线的匹配问题。     

Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Points and Lines with Unknown Correspondence across Images

Three-dimensional reconstruction from a set of images is an important and difficult problem in computer vision. In this paper, we address the problem of determining image feature correspondences while simultaneously reconstructing the corresponding 3D features, given the camera poses of disparate monocular views. First, two new affinity measures are presented that capture the degree to which candidate features from different images consistently represent the projection of the same 3D point or 3D line. An affinity measure for point features in two different views is defined with respect to their distance from a hypothetical projected 3D pseudo-intersection point. Similarly, an affinity measure for 2D image line segments across three views is defined with respect to a 3D pseudo-intersection line. These affinity measures provide a foundation for determining unknown correspondences using weighted bipartite graphs representing candidate point and line matches across different images. As a result of this graph representation, a standard graph-theoretic algorithm can provide an optimal, simultaneous matching and triangulation of points across two views, and lines across three views. Experimental results on synthetic and real data demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.An erratum to this article can be found at     

一种基于树结构的立体图像特征提取算法

针对立体图像匹配中的特征检测问题，提出了一种基于树结构的立体图像中边缘点、直线段、交点和凸多边形区域等特征的检测方案。该方法首先基于改进的Canny算子实现立体图像边缘的检测；基于立体图像的边缘梯度信息，文中提出一种分层并行式迭代式链码跟踪方法实现图像中直线段的检测：为提高检测速度并有利于凸多边形区域特征的检测，基于凸多边形区域的几何定义，通过提取直线段交点并采用树结构实现对已检测的相关直线段信息的遍历处理，最终得到树结构表示的凸多边形区域特征。实验证明，所提方法在结构化环境具有很好的检测精度和实时性。     

Buffer queries

A class of commonly asked queries in a spatial database is known as buffer queries. An example of such a query is to "find house-power line pairs that are within 50 meters of each other." A buffer query involves two spatial data sets and a distance d. The answer to this query are pairs of objects, one from each input set, that are within distance d of each other. Given nonpoint spatial objects, evaluation of buffer queries could be a costly operation, even when the numbers of objects in the input data sets are relatively small. This paper addresses the problem of how to evaluate this class of queries efficiently. A fundamental problem with buffer query evaluation is to find an efficient algorithm for solving the minimum distance (miniDist) problem for lines and regions. An efficient minDist algorithm, which only requires a subsequence of segments from each object to be examined, is derived. Finding a fast minDist algorithm is the first step in evaluating a buffer query efficiently. It is observed that many, and sometimes even most, candidates can be proven in the answer without resorting to the relatively expensive minDist operation. A candidate is first evaluated with a least expensive technique-called O-object filtering. If it fails, a more costly operation, called 1-object filtering, is applied. Finally, if both filterings fail, the most expensive minDist algorithm is invoked. To show the effectiveness of the these techniques, they are incorporated into the well-known tree join algorithm and tested with real-life as well as artificial data sets. Extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing techniques by a wide margin in both execution time as well as IO accesses. More importantly, the performance gain improves drastically with the increase of distance values.     

基于三分量自主意识UAV路面遥感图像拼接算法

针对在检测过程中需要高分辨率的全景图像分析路面病害特征参数的问题,提出了一种具有三分量（3c）动态自主意识的遥感路面病害图像拼接算法。基于目标识别、主动立体视觉确定UAV系统在三维结构中的自主意识;采用增量搜索策略基于几何约束将SIFT点特征三角化;结合PNP—RANSAC算法找到最佳匹配面进行误匹配剔除;利用三角函数理论对图像进行融合。实现对长线程病害路面图像数据集的快速准确拼接。特征搜索时间平均为未使用增量搜索策略的43.45%,拼接准确率在88%以上。实验数据表明,基于三分量自主意识的UAV路面遥感图像拼接系统可以有效地应对长线程路面病害图像。     

基于p2-不变量的透视变换下的点模式匹配方法

点模式匹配是计算机视觉和模式识别领域中的一个重要问题。通过研究,在假定待匹配的两个点模式中已知有三对点整体对应的前提下,基于射影坐标以及对投景变换和排序变换同时保持不变的ｐ＾２－－不变量等理论,通过定义一种广义距离,给出了一种求解透视变换下,点数不等的两个平面点模式匹配问题的新算法。理论分析和仿真实验表明,该算法是快速、有效的。     

Line segment detection using weighted mean shift procedures on a 2D slice sampling strategy

A new line segment detection approach is introduced in this paper for its application in real-time computer vision systems. It has been designed to work unsupervised without any prior knowledge of the imaged scene; hence, it does not require tuning of input parameters. Although many works have been presented on this topic, as far as we know, none of them achieves a trade-off between accuracy and speed as our strategy does. The reduction of the computational cost compared to other fast methods is based on a very efficient sampling strategy that sequentially proposes points on the image that likely belong to line segments. Then, a fast line growing algorithm is applied based on the Bresenham algorithm, which is combined with a modified version of the mean shift algorithm to provide accurate line segments while being robust against noise. The performance of this strategy is tested for a wide variety of images, comparing its results with popular state-of-the-art line segment detection methods. The results show that our proposal outperforms these works considering simultaneously accuracy in the results and processing speed.     

几何特性二元关系的直线匹配

目的 针对直线编组匹配方法数据处理量大、耗时长,且易受阈值选择变化影响,提出一种几何特性二元关系的直线匹配算法。方法 利用线段二元关系计算出参考线段对与待匹配线段对的局部相似度,并用阈值对局部相似度进行初步过滤,然后采用分步笛卡儿积运算、逐步过滤递推得到候选线段集,最后在计算出所有候选线段集的全局相似度的基础上,综合考虑局部相似度和全局相似度得到最终的匹配结果。结果 该算法具有良好的旋转、缩放和平移不变性,对直线的端点和长度变化不敏感,且阈值选择对匹配结果影响小,具有较好的鲁棒性,同时充分考虑直线方向问题,提高了匹配的准确率。结论 通过算法分析和实验结果分析,证明了该算法的合理性、高效性和可靠性。     

Image Registration for Digital Subtraction Angiography

In clinical practice, Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) is a powerful technique for the visualization of blood vessels in the human body. The diagnostic relevance of the images is often reduced by artifacts which arise from the misalignment of successive images in the sequence, due to patient motion. In order to improve the quality of the subtraction images, several registration techniques have been proposed. However, because of the required computation times, it has never led to algorithms that are fast enough so as to be acceptable for integration in clinical applications. In this paper, a new approach to the registration of digital angiographic images is proposed. It involves an edge-based selection of control points for which the displacement is computed by means of template matching, and from which the complete displacement vector field is constructed by means of interpolation. The final warping of the images according to the calculated displacement vector field is performed real-time by graphics hardware. Experimental results with several clinical data sets show that the proposed algorithm is both effective and very fast.     

多重约束条件下的LBD描述子与直线段匹配

目的 针对直线描述子匹配算法缺乏有效的几何约束,且易受弱纹理、尺度变化的影响,提出一种结合多重约束条件的LBD描述子的直线段匹配算法（LBDs）。方法 该算法以LSD算法提取的直线段作为匹配基元,利用SIFT匹配得到的同名点构建同名三角网约束确定候选直线;参考影像上以目标直线段为中心轴建立该直线段的矩形支撑域;根据目标直线段端点及其支撑域四角点在搜索影像上的核线约束建立候选直线段的对应支撑域;利用仿射变换统一目标直线段及候选直线段支撑域的大小;将直线段支撑域分解为大小相等的条形带,通过计算每个条形带的描述符得到该直线段的描述子,依次完成目标直线段与候选直线段LBD描述子的构建;分别计算目标直线段与每个候选直线段描述子向量间的欧氏距离,将满足最近邻距离比准则的候选直线段作为匹配结果;最后选取角度约束对匹配结果检核,确定同名直线。结果 实验选取网上公开的3组分别存在角度、旋转、尺度变换的近景影像对作为实验数据,采用LBDs分别对其进行直线段匹配实验,并与其他直线段匹配算法进行对比分析,实验结果表明,LBDs获取同名直线数目约为其他算法的1.061.41倍,匹配正确率也提高了2.411.6个百分点,从匹配效率上来看,LBDs更为耗时,但兼顾该算法匹配获得同名直线数目、匹配正确率及运行时间,LBDs的鲁棒性更强,匹配结果的准确性与可靠性较高。结论 结合多重约束条件构建的LBD描述子对于存在角度、旋转和尺度变化的影像进行直线匹配过程中具有稳定性。     

基于Hausdorff距离的图像配准快速算法

在图像配准过程中,传统Hausdorff距离算法的计算量较大。针对该问题,提出一种基于Hausdorff距离的图像配准快速算法。将参考图像和待配准图像进行边缘检测,在待配准图像上任意选取一个模板,通过设定一个变化的阈值对Hausdorff距离算法进行改进,以减少不必要点的计算,实现快速匹配,并根据匹配数据,对图像进行尺度变换及旋转操作,使2幅图像能在空间上配准。实验结果表明,与传统的配准算法相比,该算法的计算复杂度较低。     

An invariant approach for image registration in digital subtraction angiography

In modern medicine, digital subtraction angiography is a powerful technique for the visualization of blood vessels in a sequence of X-ray images. A serious problem encountered in this technique is misregistration of images due to patient motion. The resulting artifacts which arise from the misalignment of successive images in the sequence frequently reduce the diagnostic value of the images. In this paper, a new approach to the registration of digital angiographic image sequences is proposed. It is based on local similarity detection by means of template matching according to a combined invariants-based similarity measure and on thin-plate spline image warping. This technique is fully automatic and very efficient to correct for patient motion artifacts. The proposed algorithm for this technique has been successfully applied to register several clinical data sets including coronary applications. It works perfectly well for both slow and sudden motions and is both effective and fast.     

A new robust algorithm for video text extraction

We report on the development and implementation of a robust algorithm for extracting text in digitized color video. The algorithm first computes maximum gradient difference to detect potential text line segments from horizontal scan lines of the video. Potential text line segments are then expanded or combined with potential text line segments from adjacent scan lines to form text blocks, which are then subject to filtering and refinement. Color information is then used to more precisely locate text pixels within the detected text blocks. The robustness of the algorithm is demonstrated by using a variety of color images digitized from broadcast television for testing. The algorithm also performs well on images after JPEG compression and decompression, and on images corrupted with different types of noise.     

基于线模式的指纹细节点匹配算法

提出了一种新的基于线模式的指纹图像细节点匹配算法,这种算法先分别找出最佳匹配点对,确定相对旋转角度,较快地确定两个指纹的相关性,之后再搜索漏的匹配点对,去掉错误的匹配点对。算法受指纹增强、后处理的影响较小,细节点相似程度受其邻域细节点影响较小。介绍了算法的具体实现方法,并用实际指纹数据进行了测试。初步测试的结果表明,此算法是指纹图像细节点匹配的一种有效算法。     

基于p2-不变量的透视变换下的点模式匹配方法

点模式匹配是计算机视觉和模式识别领域中的一个重要问题 .通过研究 ,在假定待匹配的两个点模式中已知有三对点整体对应的前提下 ,基于射影坐标以及对投影变换和排序变换同时保持不变的 p2 -不变量等理论 ,通过定义一种广义距离 ,给出了一种求解透视变换下 ,点数不等的两个平面点模式匹配问题的新算法 .理论分析和仿真实验表明 ,该算法是快速、有效的     

Computationally efficient eigenspace decomposition of correlated images characterized by three parameters

Eigendecomposition is a common technique that is performed on sets of correlated images in a number of pattern recognition applications including object detection and pose estimation. However, many fast eigendecomposition algorithms rely on correlated images that are, at least implicitly, characterized by only one parameter, frequently time, for their computational efficacy. In some applications, e.g., three-dimensional pose estimation, images are correlated along multiple parameters and no natural one-dimensional ordering exists. In this work, a fast eigendecomposition algorithm that exploits the “temporal” correlation within image data sets characterized by one parameter is extended to improve the computational efficiency of computing the eigendecomposition for image data sets characterized by three parameters. The algorithm is implemented and evaluated using three-dimensional pose estimation as an example application. Its accuracy and computational efficiency are compared to that of the original algorithm applied to one-dimensional pose estimation.     

基于CenSurE-star和LDB的被测目标图像匹配算法

针对传统点特征匹配方法计算量大、匹配速度慢的问题,给出了一种基于CenSurE-star和LDB的图像匹配算法,以用于在视觉检测中对被测目标图像进行快速匹配;该算法首先通过调整滤波器尺寸从而快速检测被测目标图像中不同尺度的CenSurE-star特征点,然后采用LDB方法对特征点结合其邻域进行描述,以描述符汉明距离为标准衡量图像特征点间的相似度并进行对应筛选,最终结合RANSAC剔除剩余的误匹配点对,实现了图像间准确匹配;实验研究表明,在关于光照、噪声和模糊变化的三组被测目标图像匹配中相较SIFT、SURF等常见算法,该算法不仅显著提升匹配速度,而且保证了较高的匹配准确率。     

基于主元分析和聚类的直线检测算法

针对现有的直线检测算法中,基于霍夫变换类算法开销大且易产生虚假结果,基于链码跟踪类方法鲁棒性和适应性较差的问题,提出一种新的直线检测算法。对边缘图像做分块链码跟踪产生链码串,然后对链码串做主元分析(PCA)构造线段,最后采用聚类方法合并线段以产生直线。实验结果表明,该算法速度较快,检测结果较理想,且对较复杂、细节丰富的图像也具有良好的检测结果。     

Machine identification of buds in images of plant shoots

Tissue cultures find increasingly widespread applications for cloning of many plants. Commercial propagation by tissue cultures is limited to ornamental plants, because the cost of skilled labor required cannot compete with conventional propagation methods. To cut down the cost, some automation is essential. A cost-effective approach is to chop the plantlets into segments on a conveying production line while using machine vision for identifying and locating the number and positions of propagation organs in images of the plantlet segments. Plantlet segments without propagation organs will be rejected, while segments with viable buds will be selected for subculturing. To this end, a machine-vision-controlled automatic subculturing system for potato tissue cultures is proposed as a simpler and more cost-effective solution than the popular trend of imitating the manual sub-culturing task by a robot. A simple and relatively fast image-processing algorithm particularly suitable for classification of potato tissue cultures, was developed. In lieu of the general Medial Axis Transform approach, this specialized algorithm takes advantage of the inherent difference between the geometrical shape and gray scale levels of the stems and the leaves as well as of the rather simple connectivity rules of attachment between them. The results indicate that machine inspection and classification of tissue culture plantlets is possible, but considerably more work needs to be done before this technique is fully developed for automating tissue culture processes.