Morphological Image Processing

C. Vinoth Kumar
SSN College of Engineering
Mathematical Morphology
It is a collection of non-linear processes which can be
applied to an image to remove details smaller than a
certain reference shape.
It is used to extract image components that are useful in
the representation and description of region shape, such
as boundaries extraction, skeletons, morphological
filtering, thinning and pruning.
It is based on set theory.
Mathematic Morphology
Applications:
pre-processing
noise filtering, shape simplification, ...
enhancing object structure
skeletonization, convex hull, ...
Segmentation
watershed,
quantitative description
area, perimeter, ...
Example
Structuring Element (SE)
Reference shape is called as Structuring Element.
Like convolution kernel, the structuring element can be of
any size and defined by a 0s and 1s.
At each pixel position, a specified logical operation is
performed between the structuring element and the
underlying binary image.
Erosion (shrinking thinning operator)
Dilation (growing)
Opening (keep general shape but smooth the object)
Closing (keep general shape but smooth the background)
Hit-or-Miss transform
Basic morphological operations
Erosion
It is removal of structures of certain shape and size, given
by SE
The structuring element is normally smaller than the
image, usually 3 x 3 size.
Erosion of a set A by structuring element B: all z in A such
that B is in A when origin of B=z
If there is no complete overlapping then the centre pixel
indicated by the centre of the structuring element will be
set white or zero.
Hence narrow regions can be eliminated and wider ones
are thinned.
} { A z|(B) B A
z
=
Erosion
Dilation
It is filling of holes of certain shape and size, given by SE
Dilation of a set A by structuring element B: all z in A such
that B hits A when origin of B=z
The process will look for any overlapping similar pixels
between the structuring element and that of the binary
image.
If there exists an overlapping then the pixels under the
centre position of the structuring element will be turned to
black or one.
}

{ A ) B z|( B A
z
=
Dilation
Dilation : Bridging gaps
Erosion: eliminating irrelevant detail
Dilation: enhancing the relevant detail
Combining erosion and dilation
Opening
Erosion followed by dilation, denoted by
It eliminates thin portions of the image, breaks necks,
smoothes the inside of the object contour
It is used to remove noise and blurring effects.
B B A B A = ) ( o
Opening
Dilation followed by erosion, denoted
It smoothes contour, fuse narrow breaks and long thin
gulfs, eliminate small holes, and fill gaps in the contour
It maintains the shapes and sizes of the objects
B B A B A = ) (
Closing
Closing
Combining erosion and dilation
Application: Filtering
Boundary Extraction
) ( B A A Y =
Region Filling
,... 3 , 2 , 1 ) (
1
= =

k A B X X
c
k k