Representation

After image segmentation the resulting collection of regions is

REPRESENTATION & DESCRIPTION usually represented and described in a form suitable for higher
level processing.

Most important representations are based on shape or texture.

Desirable property: descriptors should be insensitive to

changes in size, translation or rotation.

Actual measurement of features in digital images makes use

of many of the techniques discussed earlier, such as linear or
morphological image operators.

Descriptors Moore boundary tracking

Boundary descriptors

Put boundary points of a binary region R (or its boundary) in a

clockwise-sorted order.

Needed for computation of boundary descriptors.

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 Chain codes Chain codes

Freeman chain codes: strings of integers representing a

boundary by a connected sequence of straight-line segments
of specified length and direction.

The direction of each line segment is coded using a numbering (a) 8-directional chain code. (b) Digital boundary with resampling grid. (c)
scheme adapted to the connectivity. Resampled boundary. (d) 8-directional chain-coded boundary.

The accuracy of the straight-line representation depends on the

spacing of the sampling grid.

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Chain codes: first difference Polygon representation

A digital boundary can also be approximated by a polygon,

First difference of a chain code: count number of direction possibly with minimum length (MPP: minimum-perimeter
changes (e.g., counterclockwise) that separate two adjacent polygon).
code elements.
Such rubber band approximations directly within the grey value
chain code: 10103322 (start lower left) image are known as active contour models, or snakes.
first difference: 33133030 (circular sequence)
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 Minimum-perimeter polygon (MPP) Signatures

(a) Light grey: region containing the boundary curve.

1-D representation of a boundary
(b) Convex (white) and concave (black) corner vertices.
(c) Concave vertices moved to diagonal mirror locations. The MPP is Example: distance r() of centroid to boundary as a function of
indicated. angle .
Often the boundary is first smoothed
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Signature Characteristic Profile

For each angle, compute difference between radial distance from ellipse
center to ellipse and to contour, respectively. (Ciobanu and Du Buf, 2002.)

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 Convex and non-convex objects Boundary segments

An object (binary image) is convex if for every pair of points p

and q within the object, every point on the straight line segment
that joins p and q is also within the object. Otherwise, we call it
non-convex.

p
p To reduce the complexity of the boundary, decompose it into
segments

If the boundary encloses a region S, compute the convex hull

q
q
H of S, and the convex deficiency D = H \ S.

Mark points on the boundary at which a transition in and out of

convex object non-convex object the convex deficiency occurs.

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Boundary descriptors Curvature

Length: no. of pixels along contour, length of MPP.

Diameter: Diam(B) = max [D(pi, pj )] with pi, pj points on the

i,j
boundary B and D a distance measure.

Major axis: line segment connecting the extreme points

0.06 0.12 0.06

0.05
0.1
0.04

comprising the diameter 0.02

0.08
0.04

0.03

Curvature

Curvature
0.06

Curvature
0 0.02

Minor axis: line segment perpendicular to major axis such that

0.04
0.01
0.02
0.02

rectangle defined by major and minor axis tightly encloses the

0

0.04
0
0.01

boundary 0.06
0 0.25 0.5
Position along contour
0.75 1
0.02
0 0.25 0.5
Position along contour
0.75 1 0.02
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Position along contour
0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Eccentricity: ratio of lengths of major and minor axes dashed: Gaussian smoothing, continuous: Adaptive Gaussian smoothing

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 Shape numbers Fourier descriptors

Represent boundary as a sequence s(k) = x(k) + i y(k), k =

0, 1, . . . K 1, where (x(k), y(k)) are coordinates of points on
the contour.
Given a chain-coded boundary, its shape number is that
particular cyclic permutation of the first difference which is DFT of the vector (s(0), s(1), . . . , s(K 1)) yields K complex
lexicographically smallest among all the cyclic permutations coefficients: the Fourier descriptors.
Order n of shape number: no. of digits in its representation Approximation: only use P < K of the Fourier coefficients and
perform an inverse DFT.
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Fourier descriptors Statistical moments

Represent boundary as a function g(r).

Let p(vi), i = 1, 2, . . . , A 1 be the amplitude histogram of g(r).

P
Mean: m = A1 i=0 vi p(vi)

nth moment:
P
(a) Input (2868 points). (b)-(h) Approximations using 1434, 286, 144, 72, 36, n = A1 n
i=0 (vi m) p(vi) n = 2, 3, . . .
18, 8 Fourier coefficients.

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 Descriptors Simple regional descriptors

Mean, median, maximum, minimum grey level

Area A, perimeter P

Regional descriptors Compactness:

P2
A
Circularity ratio:
4A
Rc =
P2
For a circle, Rc = 1

Rc is invariant under translation, rotation, and scaling

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Topological descriptors Genus via erosions

H
V B

g4(I): binary image I with 4-connected 1-pixels and 8-

connected 0-pixels:
Invariant to a large class of local deformations.
g4(I) = # I # I V # I H + # I B
Examples: number of connected components; number of holes
Similar formulas for g8(I), also via hit-or-miss transforms.
Genus or Euler number: E = C H (number of connected
components minus the number of holes).

Computable by erosions or hit-or-miss transforms. # I=no. of pixels of I, etc.

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 Texture Texture descriptions

Refers to the spatial distribution of discrete grey value variations,

described in terms of:
uniformity Three main approaches:
coarseness
regularity 1. statistical: moments, co-occurrence matrix
directionality
2. structural, viewing a texture as an arrangement of texture
primitives

3. spectral, using the Fourier transform to detect global

periodicities

Straw Raffia
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Statistical texture description: co-occurrence Co-occurrence matrix

matrix

Let Q be a spatial predicate defined on pixel pairs (p, q), such

as: Q(p, q) q is a right neighbour of p.

For an image with L levels and a binary spatial predicate Q, the

L L co-occurrence matrix G is defined by:

g(i, j) ={no. of pixel pairs with grey levels (zi, zj )

satisfying predicate Q}, 1 i, j L

Predicate: Q(p, q) q is a right neighbour of p.

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 Co-occurrence matrix Co-occurrence matrix: example

Given a co-occurrence matrix G w.r.t. a spatial predicate Q

n denotes the total number of pixels pairs satisfying Q (sum of

texture 1 texture 2 texture 3
the elements of G)

The quantity pij = gij /n is an estimate of the probability that a

pixel pair satisfying Q has values (zi, zj ).

Properties of the distribution pij can be used to characterize the

spatial properties represented by G

G1 G2 G3

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Structural texture description Spectral texture description

Textures generated from texture primitives (Brodatz texture collection,

http://www.ux.uis.no/~tranden/brodatz.html). Fourier spectra of random and ordered textures.
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 Spatial moment invariants Spatial moment invariants

Central moments of an M N image f (x, y):

M
X 1 N
X 1
pq = (x x)p (y y)q f (x, y), p, q = 1, 2, . . .
x=0 y=0

with x =
Pm110/m , y = m01/m00,
PN001
mpq = M x=0
p q
y=0 x y f (x, y).

Normalized central moments: pq = pq /00 where = p+q

2 + 1.

Invariant moments: combinations 1, . . . , 7 of pq which are

invariant to translation, rotation and scale-change.

Values of each invariant moment k are the same for all pictures.
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