Class of Image Processing

CHAPTER 4
Morphological
Image Processing
6 Periods

Department of Mechatronics

EIU - 2017
N.Huan Le
 Chapter outcomes
• Understand basic concept and Logic Operations
Involving Binary Pixels and Images
• Understand methods to apply morphological
operations for image enhancement
• Basic morphological algorithms
• Extensions of basic morphological algorithms to
gray-scale images

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 Contents
• This lecture will cover:
– Preliminaries
– Dilation and Erosion
– Opening and Closing
– The Hit-or-Miss Transformation
– Some Basic Morphological Algorithms
– Extensions to Gray-Scale Images

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 What are Morphological
Operations?
Morphological operations come from the word “morphing”
in Biology which means “changing a shape”.

Morphing

Image morphological operations are used to manipulate

object shapes such as thinning, thickening, and filling.

Binary morphological operations are derived from

set operations.
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 Basic Concepts in Set Theory
• Subset

• Union

• Intersection

disjoint / mutually exclusive

• Complement
• Difference
• Reflection
• Translation

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 Logic Operations Involving
Binary Pixels and Images
• The principal logic operations used in image
processing are: AND, OR, NOT (COMPLEMENT).
• These operations are functionally complete.
• Logic operations are preformed on a pixel by pixel
basis between corresponding pixels (bitwise).
• Other important logic operations:
XOR (exclusive OR), NAND (NOT-AND)
• Logic operations are just a private case for a binary
set operations, such: AND – Intersection , OR –
Union, NOT-Complement.

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 Basic Set Operations

Concept of a set in binary image morphology:

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Each set may represent one object. Each pixel (x,y) has
its status: belong to a set or not belong to a set.

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 Translation and Reflection
Operations
Translation Reflection

Az c c a  z, for a  A Bˆ w w  b, for b  B

z = (z1,z2)

(A)z
B̂
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 Dilation Operations

• Dilation is used for expanding an element A by using

structuring element B.
• Dilation of A by B and is defined by the following equation:

• This equation is based on obtaining the reflection 0f B

about its origin and shifting this reflection by z.
• The dilation of A by B is the set of all displacements z,
such that and A overlap by at least one element. Based
on this interpretation the equation of (9.2-1) can be
rewritten as:

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 Dilation Operations

A  B  z Bˆ z  A  

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

= Empty set
Dilate means “extend”

A = Object to be dilated
B = Structuring element

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 Dilation Operations (cont.)
Reflection
B̂

Structuring
Element (B)

Original image (A) Intersect pixel Center pixel

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 Dilation Operations (cont.)

Result of Dilation Boundary of the “center pixels”


where B̂ z intersects A
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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

“Repair” broken characters

Dilation
Example: Application of

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 Erosion Operation

• Erosion is used for shrinking of element

A by using element B.
• Erosion for Sets A and B in Z2, is defined
by the following equation:

• This equation indicates that the erosion

of A by B is the set of all points z such
that B, translated by z, is combined in
A.

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 Erosion Operation

A B z B z  A
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Erosion means “trim”

A = Object to be eroded
B = Structuring element

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 Erosion Operations (cont.)

Structuring
Element (B)

Original image (A)

Intersect pixel Center pixel

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 Erosion Operations (cont.)

Result of Erosion
Boundary of the “center pixels”
where B is inside A

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 Example: Application of
Dilation and Erosion
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Remove small objects such as noise

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 Opening And Closing

• Opening – smoothes contours , eliminates

protrusions
• Closing – smoothes sections of contours,
fuses narrow breaks and long thin gulfs,
eliminates small holes and fills gaps in
contours
• These operations are dual to each other
• These operations can be applied few times,
but has effect only once

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 Opening And Closing
• Opening –
– First – erode A by B, and then dilate the result
by B
– In other words, opening is the unification of all
B objects entirely contained in A

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 Opening Operation
A  B ( A B )  B
or
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

A  B B z B z  A
= Combination of all parts of A that can completely contain B

Opening eliminates narrow and small details and corners.

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Example of Opening

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 Example of Opening
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/hipr_top.htm

Effect of opening using a 3×3 square structuring element

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 Opening And Closing
• Closing –
– First – dilate A by B, and then erode the result by B
– In other words, closing is the group of points,
which the intersection of object B around them
with object A – is not empty

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 Closing Operation
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

A  B ( A  B ) B

Closing fills narrow gaps and notches

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Example of Closing

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 Example of Closing
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/hipr_top.htm

Effect of closing using a 3×3 square structuring element

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 Example: Application of
Morphological Operations

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 Example: Application of
Morphological Operations
Finger print
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

enhancement

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 The Hit-or-Miss
Transformation
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/hipr_top.htm

– The hit-and-miss transform is a general binary

morphological operation that can be used to look for
particular patterns of foreground and background pixels
in an image.
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 The Hit-or-Miss
Transformation
– Example of the extended type of structuring
element used in hit-and-miss operations.
– This particular element can be used to find
corner points.

– Four structuring elements used for corner finding in

binary images using the hit-and-miss transform.
– Note that they are really all the same element, but
rotated by different amounts. N.Huan Le
 The Hit-or-Miss
Transformation
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/hipr_top.htm

– Effect of the hit-and-miss based right angle convex

corner detector on a simple binary image.

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 Hit-or-Miss Transformation

Some applications of the hit-and-miss transforms:

http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/hipr_top.htm

– 1 is used to locate isolated points in a binary image.

– 2 is used to locate the end points on a binary. Note that this
structuring element must be used in all its rotations so four
hit-and-miss passes are required.
– 3a and 3b are used to locate the triple points (junctions).
Both structuring elements must be run in all orientations so
eight hit-and-miss passes are required.
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 Example: Application of
Hit-or-Miss Transformation
http://lamda.nju.edu.cn/

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 Example: Application of
Hit-or-Miss Transformation

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 Basic Morphological
Algorithms
1 – Boundary Extraction
2 – Region Filling
3 – Extraction of Connected Components
4 – Convex Hull
5 – Thinning
6 – Thickening
7 – Skeletons

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 Boundary Extraction

• First, erode A by B, then make set difference

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

between A and the erosion

• The thickness of the contour depends on the size
of constructing object – B

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

image
Original
β(A)  A  A
B
Boundary Extraction

Boundary

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Example: Boundary
Extraction

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 Region Filling
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

• This algorithm is based on a set of dilations,

complementation and intersections
• p is the point inside the boundary, with the value of 1
• X(k) = (X(k-1) xor B) conjunction with complemented
A
• The process stops when X(k) = X(k-1)
• The result that given by union of A and X(k), is a set
contains the filled set and the boundary

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Region Filling

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

image
Original
Region Filling

Results of region filling

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 Extraction of Connected
Components
• This algorithm extracts a component by selecting
a point on a binary object A
• Works similar to region filling, but this time we
use in the conjunction the object A, instead of it’s
complement

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 Extraction of Connected
Components
X k X k  1  B  A where X0 = seed pixel p
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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 Example: Extraction of Connected
Components

X-ray image
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

of bones

Thresholded
image

Connected
components

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Example: Extraction of Connected
Components

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 Convex Hull

• A is said to be convex if a straight line segment

joining any two points in A lies entirely within A
• The convex hull H of set S is the smallest convex
set containing S
• Convex deficiency is the set difference H-S
• Useful for object description
• This algorithm iteratively applying the hit-or-miss
transform to A with the first of B element, unions
it with A, and repeated with second element of B

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 Convex Hull
Convex hull has no concave part.
Convex hull

Algorithm: 4
C ( A)  D where i i
i
D X conv
i 1

X X k  1
i
k * B  A,
i
i 1,2,3,4

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Example: Convex Hull

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Example: Convex Hull

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 Thinning
• The thinning of a set A by a structuring element B,
can be defined by terms of the hit-and-miss
transform:

• A more useful expression for thinning A

symmetrically is based on a sequence of
structuring elements:
{B}={B1, B2, B3, …, Bn}
• Where Bi is a rotated version of Bi-1.
• We define thinning by a sequence of structuring
elements:

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 Thinning (cont..)

• The process is to thin by one pass

with B1 , then thin the result with one
pass with B2, and so on until A is
thinned with one pass with Bn.
• The entire process is repeated until
no further changes occur.
• Each pass is preformed using the
equation:

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 Thinning (cont..)

A  B A  ( A B)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

*
c
A  ( A * B)

A  B ((...(( A  B )  B )...)  B )

1 2 n

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Example: Thinning

thinner.
Make an object

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Example: Thinning

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 Thickening

• Thickening is a morphological dual of thinning.

• Definition of thickening .
• Thickening can be defined as a sequential
operation:

• The structuring elements used for thickening

have the same form as in thinning, but with all
1’s and 0’s interchanged.

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 Thickening - cont

• A separate algorithm for thickening is often

used in practice.

• To thicken a set A, we form C=Ac , thin C and

then form Cc.

• Depending on the nature of A, this procedure

may result in some disconnected points.

• Thickening by this procedure usually require a

simple post-processing step to remove
disconnected points.

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 Thickening example preview

• The thinned background forms a boundary for the

thickening process.

• This feature does not occur in the direct

implementation of thickening.

• This is one of the reasons for using background

thinning to accomplish thickening.

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 A . B  A  ( A B)
*
*

A . B ((...(( A . B ) . B )...) . B )

1 2 n
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Make an object thicker

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

(cont.)
Summary of Binary Morphological Operations

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

(cont.)
Summary of Binary Morphological Operations

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 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Elements

x = don’t care
Basic Types of Structuring

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 Gray-Scale Dilation
1-D Case
ff  b max f ( s  x )  b( x ) | ( s  x )  D and x  D 
b
2-D Case
f  b max f ( s  x, t  y )  b( x, y ) | ( s  x ), (t  y )  D f ; ( x, y )  Db 
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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 Gray-Scale Dilation (cont.)
Original image Reflection
Subimage of B
+

Max
Moving
window
Structuring
element B

Note: B can be any shape and

subimage must have
the same shape as
reflection of B. Output image
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Example: Gray-Scale Dilation

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 Gray-Scale Erosion
1-D Case f  b min f ( s  x )  b( x ) | ( s  x )  D f and x  Db 
2-D Case
f  b min f ( s  x, t  y )  b( x, y ) | ( s  x ), (t  y )  D f ; ( x, y )  Db 
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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 Gray-Scale Erosion (cont.)
Original image
Subimage B
-

Min
Moving
window
Structuring
element B

Note: B can be any shape and

subimage must have
the same shape as B.
Output image N.Huan Le
Example: Gray-Scale Erosion

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 Example: Gray-Scale Dilation and Erosion

Original image After dilation

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Darker Brighter

After erosion N.Huan Le

 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

f  b ( f  b)  b
Gray-Scale Opening

Opening cuts peaks

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Example: Gray-Scale
Opening

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 Gray-Scale Closing

f  b ( f  b)  b
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Closing fills valleys

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Example: Gray-Scale Closing

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 Example: Gray-Scale
Opening and Closing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Original image After opening After closing

Reduce dark
Reduce white objects
objects
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 Gray-scale Morphological
Smoothing
Smoothing: Perform opening followed by closing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Original image After smoothing

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 Morphological Gradient

g ( f  b)  ( f  b)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Original image Morphological Gradient

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 Top-Hat Transformation

h  f  ( f  b)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Original image Results of top-hat transform

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 Example: Texture
Segmentation Application
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Small
blob

Original image Segmented result

Algorithm: Large blob
1. Perform closing on the image by using successively larger
structuring elements until small blobs are vanished.
2. Perform opening to join large blobs together
3. Perform intensity thresholding N.Huan Le
 Example: Granulometry
Objective: to count the number of particles of each size
Method:
1. Perform opening using structuring elements of increasing size
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

2. Compute the difference between the original image and the result
after each opening operation
3. The differenced image obtained in Step 2 are normalized and used
to construct the size-distribution graph.

Size distribution
Original image graph N.Huan Le
N.Huan Le