Signal dierentiation through a Greens function approach

Josee R.A. Torre~aao

*
, Marcos S. Amaral
Instituto de Computac ~ aao, Universidade Federal Fluminense, 24210-240 Niter ooi, RJ Brazil
Received 19 October 2001; received in revised form 9 January 2002
Abstract
We introduce a new approach for the design of dierential operators, based on the Greens function solution to a
signal matching equation. Its use is illustrated by the construction of step-edge enhancement lters whose performance
gures are comparable, and even superior, to those reported in the literature.
2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Greens function; Signal dierentiation; Edge detection
1. The Greens function approach
The question we address is that of computing
derivatives of a signal. We will present a one-di-
mensional (1D) formulation which can be readily
extended to higher dimensions. Given the signal
Ix, its derivative can be expressed as
I
0
x lim
u!0
Ix u Ix u
2u
1
Now, let us look for a signal
~
IIx such that
~
IIx u Ix; 8x, up to second order in u. Tak-
ing a Taylor-series expansion, we see that
~
II can be
obtained by solving the dierential equation
u
2
2
~
II
00
u
~
II
0

~
II I 2
A solution to (2), satisfying the boundary condition
lim
x!1
~
IIx 0, can be expressed as (Torre~aao,
2001)
~
IIx Ix u
_
1
1
G
2
nIx n dn 3
where the Greens function, G
2
n, given by (see
Fig. 1(a))
G
2
n
0; n < 0
2
u
sin
n
u
_ _
exp
n
u
_ _
; n > 0
_
_
_
4
is the solution to
u
2
2
G
00
2
uG
0
2
G
2
dx x
0
5
under the same boundary condition (Fetter and
Walecka, 1980).
Similarly, if we look for a signal
^
IIx such that
^
IIx u Ix; 8x, up to second order in u, we
will nd
^
IIx Ix u
_
1
1
G
2
nIx n dn 6
Pattern Recognition Letters 23 (2002) 17551759
www.elsevier.com/locate/patrec
*
Corresponding author. Address: Est. do Joa, 88/201, 22610-
140, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
E-mail address: jrat@ic.u.br (J.R.A. Torre~aao).
0167-8655/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0167- 8655( 02) 00149- 6
Using (3) and (6) in (1), there results
I
0
x lim
u!0
1
2u
_
1
1
G
2
n G
2
nIx n dn
7
We have thus obtained the convolution operator
D
2
x 1=2uG
2
x G
2
x, which, in the limit
of u ! 0, becomes the impulse response of a dif-
ferentiator.
The above approach can be easily extended.
For instance, if, in place of Eq. (2), we considered
a third-order Taylor-series expansion,
u
3
6
~
II
000

u
2
2
~
II
00
u
~
II
0

~
II I 8
we would obtain, instead of (4), the Greens op-
erator (Fig. 1(b))
G
3
n
0; n < 0
Acos /exp an f g cos cn / exp bn f g; n > 0
_
9
where / is a free parameter, a 1:596=u, b
0:702=u, c 1:807=u, and
A
2
u
cos /b
_
a a
2
b
2
c
2
=3
c sin /1 2b=3
_
1
10
2. Application to edge detection
It is apparent that D
2
x (see Fig. 2) is a spe-
cial case of Deriches edge-detection operator
(Deriche, 1987). Similar forms have also been de-
rived by Spacek (1986) and, independently, by
Poggio et al. (1985). The performance of D
2
as a
step-edge detector can be evaluated through the
criteria introduced by Canny (1986) and later im-
proved by others (Deriche, 1987; Spacek, 1986;
Sarkar and Boyer, 1991). Using the invariant
measures of detection (R), localization (K), and
single response (MRC), as dened by Sarkar
and Boyer (1991), we nd RK

2
p
, and
MRC 2:294, for the overall performance index
of RKMRC 3:244.
On the other hand, using G
3
, we could construct
the dierential operator D
3
x 1=2uG
3
x
G
3
x (Fig. 2), which is very similar to Sarkar
and Boyers lter (Sarkar and Boyer, 1991), al-
though not quite as good a performer, yielding
a maximum RKMRC value of 1.98 (i.e., RK
0:703 and MRC 2:812, for / 1:244). The
Fig. 2. Filters D
2
( ) and D
3
() for the same value of u.
Fig. 1. (a) Greens function G
2
and (b) Greens function G
3
.
1756 J.R.A. Torre~aao, M.S. Amaral / Pattern Recognition Letters 23 (2002) 17551759
single-response criterion is generally well satised
by D
3
(0:9 < MRC < 3), but its detection power is
poor (RK < 0:8).
A better step-edge detector can nevertheless be
designed, by combining D
2
and D
3
into a single
dierential operator. This can be achieved thus:
generalizing Eq. (1), we express our estimate for
the derivative of Ix as
I
0
g
x lim
u!0
Ix gu Ix gu
2gu
11
where g is a real parameter. For any nite u, the
larger the g value, the broader will be the range of
x values taken into account in the estimation of the
derivative. It is thus reasonable to expect that a
combination of estimates such as (11), for dierent
values of g, could lead to a better balance in terms
of the conicting requisites of detection accuracy
and robustness against noise. We propose such a
combination under the form
I
0
x
I
0
1
x aI
0
g
x
1 a
lim
u!0
a
21 agu
Ix
_ _
gu

g
a
Ix u
_
Ix
_
gu
g
a
Ix u
__
12
where a is a real parameter.
Estimating Ix u and Ix gu, respectively,
through the Greens functions G
2
and G
3
, we ar-
rive, from (12), at the new dierential operator (see
Fig. 3) Dx 1=2uF x F x, with F x
given by
F x
A
cos /exp
_

a
gu
x
_
cos
c
gu
x
_
/
_
exp
_

b
gu
x
_

g
a
C/ sin
x
u
_ _
exp
_

x
u
_
13
where a, b, c, / and A are the same as in (9), and
C/ 2=uA.
Since A and u are just amplitude and scale
factors, there are three free parameters in Dx
Fig. 3. Filter D.
Fig. 4. Performance indices RK and MRC, as functions of g, for lter D. The various curves correspond to a going from 0.1 to 0.33, in
increments of 0.0165, from left to right on the plots.
J.R.A. Torre~aao, M.S. Amaral / Pattern Recognition Letters 23 (2002) 17551759 1757
which can aect its performance: a, g and /. To
simplify our analysis, we xed / 0, and varied a
and g. The curves of the performance indices RK
and MRC are shown in Fig. 4. For a 1=9 and
g 2:808, the best overall gure of RKMRC
3:457 was found, with RK 1:583 and MRC
2:184. This means a better result than the
RKMRC of 3.388 achieved with the analytical-
form lter of Sarkar and Boyer (1991).
In Figs. 5 and 6, we illustrate the use of Dx for
edge detection in one- and two-dimensional (2D)
signals. In the rst case, the input is a step function
corrupted by additive gaussian noise; in the second,
the clean Lena image is used, with the 1D lter
Fig. 5. (a) Corrupted step-edge signal and (b) signal enhanced by the operator D.
Fig. 6. (a) Lena image, (b) horizontal edges enhanced by operator D, (c) vertical edges enhanced by D, (d) gradient magnitude ob-
tained through D, and (e) gradient magnitude obtained through Cannys edge detector.
1758 J.R.A. Torre~aao, M.S. Amaral / Pattern Recognition Letters 23 (2002) 17551759
(u 0:013) applied separately for the enhancement
of horizontal (Fig. 6(b)) and vertical (Fig. 6(c))
edges, the magnitude of the gradient showing in
Fig. 6(d). For comparison, we also present (Fig.
6(e)) the gradient results obtained through Cannys
(rst derivative of gaussian) operator (Canny,
1986). The scales of the two lters are chosen so
that they have the same width, calculated as in
(Sarkar and Boyer, 1991). This yields r 0:954u,
where r is the scale of Cannys detector.
3. Concluding remarks
Although we have considered only a 1D treat-
ment of our approach, it should be apparent that it
can be extended to 2D, in the same fashion as
described in (Deriche, 1987; Sarkar and Boyer,
1991). Similarly, a recursive implementation of the
digital version of our lters can be readily envi-
sioned. Moreover, for the enhancement of roof
edges, the same approach could be used, now with
the dierentiated signal as input (i.e., we would
just have to apply our operator twice). It is also
worth noting that, for an innite Taylor-series
expansion of the matching equation, our opera-
tor would become D
1
dx u dx u=2u,
where dx is Diracs delta (Fetter and Walecka,
1980). This can be approximated through a dif-
ference of gaussians, in the limit of innitesimal
variance, thus yielding Macleods edge detector
(Macleod, 1970), which is known to approximate
the rst derivative of the gaussian (Canny, 1986).
Finally, we remark that, being explicitly designed
as dierential operators, our lters should nd
applications in signal processing domains other
than edge detection.
Acknowledgements
Partially supported by CNPq 460015/00-1, and
by Finep-Recope 0626/96-SAGE.
References
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