Modified Canny Edge Detection

Pi19404
February 10, 2014

Contents
Contents
Modied Canny Edge Detection
0.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 0.2 Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

Modified Canny Edge Detection
0.1 Introduction
In this article we will look at Modified canny edge detection which will provide
output corresponding to different thresholds.We will also consider the use of c
olor gradients instead of gray scale gradients
Canny Edge detection algorithm is optimal edge detection algorithm. The result
is a binary image,where the edge approximate the true edges of the image Canny
edge detection algorithm provides a computational method to achieve
 Robust Detection  Good Localization  Single response to edge
Canny Edge detection algorithm consists of 5 steps
    
Smoothing Computing Gradients Non-Maxima Suppression Double thresholding Hysteri
sis
The first step is to perform Gaussian Smoothing to eliminate the noise in the i
mage The gaussian filter is optimal filter in the sense that in increases the S
NR and provide the best localization characteristics.This have been proved in th
e paper ??. After gaussian smoothing edge detection is performed to obtain the
gradients along the x and y directions.
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

void smoothing(Mat src,Mat &dst,int aperture) { cv::GaussianBlur(src,src,Size(ap
erture,aperture),1); } smoothing(src,src,aperture); Mat dx,dy; cv::Sobel(src,dx,
CV_32F,1,0,aperture,1, 0, cv::BORDER_REPLICATE); cv::Sobel(src,dy,CV_32F,0,1,ape
rture,1, 0, cv::BORDER_REPLICATE); cv::cartToPolar(dx,dy,fmag,fori,true);
Next step is non maxima suppression,which selects the locally dominant gradient
Let us extract the edge orientation and resolve it into one of orientation at
0,45,90,135.
//pointer to orientation image float *ptr2=(float*)ori.data; for(int i=1;i<heigh
t-1;i++) { for(int j=1;j<width-1;j++) { float ori1=ptr2[j+i*width]; for(int k=0;
k<4;k++) { float i1=(k*45)+45; float i2=i1-45; float i3=(k*45)+180; float i4=i3+
45; float ori2=((int)(ori1+(45.0/2))); if(ori2 >360) ori2=ori2-360; //checking o
rienation of 0,45,90,135 if((ori2 < i1 && ori2 >=i2 ) ||(ori2 >= i3 && ori2 <=i4
)) { ori1=k*45; break; }
}
}
}
//updating discretized orientation ptr2[j+i*width]=ori1;
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

Thus we compute the dominant edge direction about the neighborhood and check if
the magnitude of gradient is strongest along neighborhood pixels along the grad
ient. If the gradient value is maximum,it is retained else value is set to 0 Th
e result is shown in figure 1d
(a) original image
(b) smoothing
(c) magnitude image
(d) suppressed
(e) lower threshs
(f) higher threshs
The input to canny edge detection algorithm is a pair of thresholds,lower and h
igher threshold. Any pixel in the image greater than lower threshold is conside
red to be an edge pixel and marked accordingly.The thresholded images are shown
in figure 1e and figure 1f. The pixels indicated in figure 1f indicate points w
hich are surely edges. The pixels indicated in figure 1e may be an edge.
cv::threshold(fmag,hout,higher,255,CV_THRESH_BINARY); cv::threshold(fmag,lout,lo
wer,255,CV_THRESH_BINARY);
If any pixels in the image are connected to these edge pixels and have gradient
greater than higher threshold,they are also marked as edge pixels.
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

Thus this can be considered as following edge .To begin with we need a pixel wi
th gradient magnitude greater than higher threshold,and edge following is done t
ill be encounted a neighborhood where all the pixels are lower than the lower th
reshold . To check if a neighbour is connected to edge ,we simple check if poin
t is possibly and edge
//function to check if point is connected to edge bool check_color(Point p) { in
t x=p.x; int y=p.y; if(x<nMinx || x >nMaxx || y<nMiny || y >nMaxy) return false;
float *pl=(float*)lout.data; float val2=pl[x+y*s.width]; int val=getPixel(p); i
f(val>0) return false; //check if pixel is possibly an edge if(val2>0) return tr
ue; else return false; return false; }
This process is called hysterisis thresholding. We will use a stack based impl
ementation of connceted component analysis.
//main function for performing connected component anaysis //starting from highe
r threshold images void connectedComponent(Mat hout) { float *ptr1=(float *)hout
.data; nMinx=1; nMaxx=s.width-2;
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

nMiny=1; nMaxy=s.height-2; for(int i=nMiny;i<nMaxy;i++) { for(int j=nMinx;j<nMax
x;j++) { if(ptr1[j+i*s.width]>0 ) { stackfill(j,i); } } } //function which perfo
rm edge following void stackfill(int x,int y) { points.push(Point(x,y)); while(p
oints.empty()==false) { //pop elements from top of stack Point p=points.top(); p
oints.pop(); setPixel(p); //add neighbors to the stack for(int i=-1;i<=1;i++) {
for(int j=-1;j<=1;j++) { if(i==0 && j==0) continue; Point p1=Point(p.x+i,p.y+j);
//check if pixel is a edge if(check_color(p1)==true) { points.push(p1); } }
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

} }
}
}
The output is show in figure 1g
(g) final edge
(h) color edge
(i) color supressed
(j) final cedge
Robust edge detection is typically a difficult task in real time environment du
e to varying illumination,shadows etc. The gradient computation is performed on
a grayscale image As a modification to canny ,gradients are computed for each
of channels of color image individually. Orientation corresponding to dominant
orientation is retained. Non maxima supression is performed on this final image
The output is seen in figure 1h,1j and ?? It can be seen that much better edge
image is obtained using color gradients. It may also be required that we perfo
rm thresholding at different levels
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

Thus we can pass a vector of thresholds to canny as input and get a vector of i
mages at output. Only the function from the point of hysteris is performed for
each pair of threshold.
void canny(Mat src,vector<Mat> &dst,vector<double> lower,vector<double> hi { Mat
fmag,fori,disp; s=Size(src.cols,src.rows); //perform gaussian smoothing //cvtCo
lor(src,src,CV_BGR2GRAY); smoothing(src,src,aperture); //computing the color gra
dients if(src.channels()>1) colorGradient(src,fmag,fori,aperture); else { Mat dx
,dy; //computing gradients along x and y direction cv::Sobel(src,dx,CV_32F,1,0,a
perture,1, 0, cv::BORDER_REPLICATE); cv::Sobel(src,dy,CV_32F,0,1,aperture,1, 0,
cv::BORDER_REPLICATE); //compute magnitude and orientation of gradient cv::cartT
oPolar(dx,dy,fmag,fori,true); } //perform non maxima suppression nonMaxima(fmag,
fori); Mat hout; dst.resize(lower.size()); //applying multiple thresholds for(in
t i=0;i<lower.size();i++) { //apply lower and higher gradient thresholds cv::thr
eshold(fmag,hout,lower[i],255,CV_THRESH_BINARY); cv::threshold(fmag,lout,higher[
i],255,CV_THRESH_BINARY); connectedComponent(hout); lout.copyTo(dst[i]); }
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Modified Canny Edge Detection

}
0.2 Code
The code for modified canny edge detector can be found in the git repository htt
ps://github.com/pi19404/OpenVision/ in files ImgProc/edgedetector.cpp and ImgPro
c/edgedetector.hpp files.
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Bibliography
Bibliography
[1] F. John Canny.  A Computational Approach to Edge Detection. In: 8.6 (1986), pp
. 679698.
doi: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/11274.11275.
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