Detection of incomplete ellipse in images with strong noise by iterative randomized Hough transform (IRHT)

An iterative randomized Hough transform (IRHT) is developed for detection of incomplete ellipses in images with strong noise. The IRHT iteratively applies the randomized Hough transform (RHT) to a region of interest in the image space. The region of interest is determined from the latest estimation of ellipse parameters. The IRHT “zooms in” on the target curve by iterative parameter adjustments and reciprocating use of the image and parameter spaces. During the iteration process, noise pixels are gradually excluded from the region of interest, and the estimation becomes progressively close to the target. The IRHT retains the advantages of RHT of high parameter resolution, computational simplicity and small storage while overcoming the noise susceptibility of RHT. Indivisible, multiple instances of ellipse can be sequentially detected. The IRHT was first tested for ellipse detection with synthesized images. It was then applied to fetal head detection in medical ultrasound images. The results demonstrate that the IRHT is a robust and efficient ellipse detection method for real-world applications.     

Randomized or probabilistic Hough transform: unified performance evaluation

Rapid computation of the Hough transform is necessary in very many computer vision applications. One of the major approaches for fast Hough transform computation is based on the use of a small random sample of the data set rather than the full set. Two different algorithms within this family are the randomized Hough transform (RHT) and the probabilistic Hough transform (PHT). There have been contradictory views on the relative merits and drawbacks of the RHT and the PHT. In this paper, a unified theoretical framework for analyzing the RHT and the PHT is established. The performance of the two algorithms is characterized both theoretically and experimentally. Clear guidelines for selecting the algorithm that is most suitable for a given application are provided. We show that, when considering the basic algorithms, the RHT is better suited for the analysis of high quality low noise edge images, while for the analysis of noisy low quality images the PHT should be selected.     

Intermediate-level feature extraction in novel parallel environments

Abstract. Parallel systems provide an approach to robust computing. The motivation for this work arises from using modern parallel environments in intermediate-level feature extraction. This study presents parallel algorithms for the Hough transform (HT) and the randomized Hough transform (RHT). The algorithms are analyzed in two parallel environments: multiprocessor computers and workstation networks. The results suggest that both environments are suitable for the parallelization of HT. Because scalability of the parallel RHT is weaker than with HT, only the multiprocessor environment is suitable. The limited scalability forces us to use adaptive techniques to obtain good results regardless of the number of processors. Despite the fact that the speedups with HT are greater than with RHT, in terms of total computation time, the new parallel RHT algorithm outperforms the parallel HT. Received: 8 December 2001 / Accepted: 5 June 2002 Correspondence to: V. Kyrki     

An extension to the randomized hough transform exploiting connectivity

Finding global curve segments in an image is an important task. For such a task, a new branch of Hough Transform algorithms, called probabilistic Hough Transforms, has been actively developed in recent years. One of the first was a new and efficient probabilistic version of the Hough Transform for curve detection, the Randomized Hough Transform (RHT). In this paper, a novel extension of the RHT, called the Connective Randomized Hough Transform (CRHT), is suggested to improve the RHT for line detection in complex and noisy pictures. The CRHT method combines the ability of the Hough Transform for global feature extraction with curve fitting techniques by exploiting the connectivity of local edge image points. Tests demonstrate the high speed and low memory usage of the CRHT, as compared both to the Standard Hough Transform and the basic RHT.     

基于梯度的随机Hough快速圆检测方法

针对随机Hough变换(RHT)在复杂图像中检测圆时产生随机采样的大量无效累积,提出了一种改进的RHT用于圆检测,方法利用梯度方向信息来判定是否对采样到的三点进行参数累积,从而较好地解决了无效累积问题。实验表明改进后的算法比原算法计算速度快,占用的内存小,检测性能有较大提高。     

局部PCA参数约束的Hough多椭圆分层检测算法

针对随机Hough变换(RHT)在复杂图像中检测圆及椭圆时随机采样所造成的大量无效采样、无效累积以及运算时间长等问题,提出基于局部PCA感兴趣参数约束Hough多椭圆分层检测思路。首先利用边缘检测算子获得边缘信息并去除边缘交叉点,在边缘图像中标记并提取出满足一定长度的连续曲线段;其次利用线段PCA方向分析确定是否属于有效曲线段;然后,对所有感兴趣曲线段按照标记顺序依次利用椭圆拟合办法初步得到感兴趣椭圆粗略参数,根据拟合结果进而模糊约束Hough变换参数搜索范围,得到精确椭圆参数;最后利用检测结果更新图像空间,删除已经检测到的椭圆,依次进行,直到所有椭圆检测完毕。实验结果表明,该算法在计算、存储消耗上均大大减少。     

A novel Hough transform based on eliminating particle swarm optimization and its applications

Hough transform (HT) is a well established method for curve detection and recognition due to its robustness and parallel processing capability. However, HT is quite time-consuming. In this paper, an eliminating particle swarm optimization (EPSO) algorithm is employed to improve the speed of a HT. The parameters of the solution after Hough transformation are considered as the particle positions, and the EPSO algorithm searches the optimum solution by eliminating the “weakest” particles to speed up the computation. An accumulation array in Hough transformation is utilized as a fitness function of the EPSO algorithm. The experiments on numerous images show that the proposed approach can detect curves or contours of both noise-free and noisy images with much better performance. Especially, for noisy images, it can archive much better results than that obtained by using the existing HT algorithms.     

一种新的随机Hough快速圆检测算法

随机Hough变换（RHT）在复杂图像中检测圆时随机采样会造成大量无效累积，该文提出了一种改进的RHT用于圆检测，它是利用梯度方向信息来决定是否对采样到的两点进行参数累积，从而较好地解决了无效累积问题，改进后的算法比原算法计算道度快，占用的内存小得多，检测性能有较大提高。     

Constrained Hough Transforms for Curve Detection

This paper describes techniques to perform fast and accurate curve detection using constrained Hough transforms, in which localization error can be propagated efficiently into the parameter space. We first review a formal definition of Hough transform and modify it to allow the formal treatment localization error. We then analyze current Hough transform techniques with respect to this definition. It is shown that the Hough transform can be subdivided into many small subproblems without a decrease in performance, where each subproblem is constrained to consider only those curves that pass through some subset of the edge pixels up to the localization error. This property allows us to accurately and efficiently propagate localization error into the parameter space such that curves are detected robustly without finding false positives. The use of randomization techniques yields an algorithm with a worst-case complexity ofO(n), wherenis the number of edge pixels in the image, if we are only required to find curves that are significant with respect to the complexity of the image. Experiments are discussed that indicate that this method is superior to previous techniques for performing curve detection and results are given showing the detection of lines and circles in real images.     

A unified perspective and new results on RHT computing, mixture based learning, and multi-learner based problem solving

On one hand, multiple object detection approaches of Hough transform (HT) type and randomized HT type have been extended into an evidence accumulation featured general framework for problem solving, with five key mechanisms elaborated and several extensions of HT and RHT presented. On the other hand, another framework is proposed to integrate typical multi-learner based approaches for problem solving, particularly on Gaussian mixture based data clustering and local subspace learning, multi-sets mixture based object detection and motion estimation, and multi-agent coordinated problem solving. Typical learning algorithms, especially those that base on rival penalized competitive learning (RPCL) and Bayesian Ying-Yang (BYY) learning, are summarized from a unified perspective with new extensions. Furthermore, the two different frameworks are not only examined with one viewed crossly from a perspective of the other, with new insights and extensions, but also further unified into a general problem solving paradigm that consists of five basic mechanisms in terms of acquisition, allocation, amalgamation, admission, and affirmation, or shortly A5 paradigm.     

一种新的不基于Hough变换的随机椭圆检测算法

椭圆检测在模式识别领域中占据着非常重要的位置。常见的基于Hough变换的椭圆检测算法(如RHT算法)存在着占用大量存储空间及计算耗时等缺点。本文提出一种高效随机的椭圆检测算法(RED)。该算法不基于Hough变换,其原理是:首先从一幅图像中随机地挑选出6个点,并定义一个约束距离以确定在此图像中是否存在一个可能的椭圆;当可能椭圆确定之后,引入椭圆点收集过程以进一步确定可能椭圆是否是待检测的真实椭圆。通过对具有不同噪声的合成图像以及真实图像进行测试,结果表明RED算法在低噪声与适度噪声的情况下,速度明显快于RHT算法。     

Hypothesis testing: a framework for analyzing and optimizing Houghtransform performance

In this paper a formal, quantitative approach to designing optimum Hough transform (HT) algorithms is proposed. This approach takes the view that a HT is a hypothesis testing method. Each sample in the HT array implements a test to determine whether a curve with the given parameters fits the edge point data. This view allows the performance of HT algorithms to be quantified. The power function, which gives the probability of rejection as a function of the underlying parametric distribution of data points, is shown to be the fundamentally important characteristic of HT behaviour. Attempting to make the power function narrow is a formal approach to optimizing HT performance. To illustrate how this framework is useful the particular problem of line detection is discussed in detail. It is shown that the hypothesis testing framework leads to a redefinition of the HT in which the values are a measure of the distribution of points around a curve rather than the number of points on a curve. This change dramatically improves the sensitivity of the method to small structures. The solution to many HT design problems can be posed within the framework, including optimal quantizations and optimum sampling of the parameter space. In this paper the authors consider the design of optimum I-D filters, which can be used to sharpen the peak structure in parameter space. Results on several real images illustrate the improvements obtained     

A new and efficient transform for curve detection

A new transform for curve detection, called the Curve-Fitting Hough Transform (CFHT), is proposed. In the conventional Hough Transform (HT) and its variants, both storage and computation grow exponentially with the number of parameters. The CFHT is advantageous over the conventional HT and variants in its high speed, small storage, arbitrary parameter range, and high parameter resolution. This is achieved by fitting a segment of the curve to be detected to a small neighborhood of edge points. If the fitting error is less than a given threshold, the parameters obtained from curve fitting are used to map an edge element to a single point in the parameter space. A multidimensional ordered parameter list is used to accumulate the occurrences of the curve to be detected.     

Optimising the application of the Hough transform for automatic feature extraction from geoscientific images

We have adapted the Hough transform to extract linear features successfully from geoscientific datasets. The Hough transform is used in an automatic technique, which makes use of a parameter space to describe features of interest in images. This method has been widely applied in machine vision for recognition of features in highly structured images. Geoscientific data is more demanding. Features of interest within scenes of natural environments exist on all scales, are often partially obscured and the images are usually noisy. Pre-processing of images before the HT is essential. Adaptations of the HT to cope with particular properties of geoscientific data include: optimising the dimensions of the discrete transform domain; using feature-modelling to cancel lines found; transforming multi-scale tiles of the original image and correcting amplitudes in the transformed domain to account for the position of features. These specific adaptations produce a method for automatic feature detection which requires the user to select only two parameters. Output of the procedure is rich in feature content and accurate, leaving a clean result for statistical analysis. This optimised HT is robust for natural scenes, coping in particular with short line-segments.     

基于随机Hough变换的零基线正弦曲线检测

研究零基线正弦曲线的随机Hough变换的最小点集、收敛映射和动态链接表结构3个基本问题,提出改进的三点拟合零基线正弦曲线的方法,给出零基线正弦曲线的随机Hough变换检测算法,并分析算法的计算性能和存储量性能。仿真实验表明该方法的有效性。     

A neural implementation of the Hough transform and the advantages of explaining away

The Hough transform (HT) is widely used for feature extraction and object detection. However, during the HT individual image elements vote for many possible parameter values. This results in a dense accumulator array and problems identifying the parameter values that correspond to image features. This article proposes a new method for implementing the voting process in the HT. This method employs a competitive neural network algorithm to perform a form of probabilistic inference known as “explaining away”. This results in a sparse accumulator array in which the parameter values of image features can be more accurately identified. The proposed method is initially demonstrated using the simple, prototypical, task of straight line detection in synthetic images. In this task it is shown to more accurately identify straight lines, and the parameter of those lines, compared to the standard Hough voting process. The proposed method is further assessed using a version of the implicit shape model (ISM) algorithm applied to car detection in natural images. In this application it is shown to more accurately identify cars, compared to using the standard Hough voting process in the same algorithm, and compared to the original ISM algorithm.     

Hough变换的特性分析:一种全局观点(II)

使用基本Hough变换进行椭圆的检测与提取,利用形状在投影时各投影区间中点是否在一条有效的正弦曲线上来检测形状是否具有中心对称性;结合对投影区间长度变化规律的分析,实现了在二维空间中椭圆的检测,并通过仿真实验说明了该方法的有效性;利用整周期上峰值线的对称性确定了多个形状投影分布的判定,使得对几何基元的提取纳入了统一的框架.     

一种基于随机Hough变换圆检测的改进算法

介绍了一种基于随机Hough变换(RHT)的圆检测的改进算法。该算法利用梯度方向信息来确定采样的三点是否进行累积,然后再利用确定候选圆范围的方法来缩小所要搜索的像素点的范围。此方法较好地解决了传统RHT中由于随机采样而造成的大量无效累积问题,并且改进后的算法使运行速度得到进一步的提高,检测性能也有较大的改善。该算法分别在加噪和不加噪的人工图像上做了实验,检测性能和处理速度方面都比传统的RHT有明显的改善和提高。     

基于最小二乘修正的随机Hough变换直线检测

利用Hough变换进行直线检测时,由于直线在参数空间中的映射容易受到邻近目标、噪声以及本身非理想状态的干扰,算法中的投票过程较易出现无效累积,进而导致虚检、漏检及端点定位不准等问题.针对传统方法的上述缺陷,提出了一种基于 ρ-θ 域最小二乘拟合修正的随机Hough变换的直线检测方法.首先, 在随机抽样时利用像素-长度比值对抽样的有效性进行判定,剔除不在直线上的抽样点对;然后, 对邻域相关点进行 ρ-θ 域的最小二乘拟合,得到修正后的直线参数用于累加投票,投票过程中设定累加阈值,通过检测峰值点逐次检出疑似长直线;最后, 通过设定断裂阈值对每条长直线进行筛选和分段,定位出直线段的端点.仿真实验表明,所提方法在投票时有效抑制了复杂环境对局部最大值的干扰,使直线检测的准确率得到显著提升.     

Multiresolution Hough transform-an efficient method of detectingpatterns in images

A new multiresolution coarse-to-fine search algorithm for efficient computation of the Hough transform is proposed. The algorithm uses multiresolution images and parameter arrays. Logarithmic range reduction is proposed to achieve faster convergence. Discretization errors are taken into consideration when accumulating the parameter array. This permits the use of a very simple peak detection algorithm. Comparative results using three peak detection methods are presented. Tests on synthetic and real-world images show that the parameters converge rapidly toward the true value. The errors in ρ and &thetas;, as well as the computation time, are much lower than those obtained by other methods. Since the multiresolution Hough transform (MHT) uses a simple peak detection algorithm, the computation time will be significantly lower than other algorithms if the time for peak detection is also taken into account. The algorithm can be generalized for patterns with any number of parameters