IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 35, NO.
2, MAY 1988
The Analysis of Natural Textures Using Run Length
Features
Abstract-In this paper a family of texture features that have the ability to
discriminate different textures in a 3-D scene as well as the ability to recover
the range and orientation of the surfaces of the scene is presented. These
texture features are derived from the gray level run length matrices
(GLRLM's) of an image. The GLRLM's are first normalized so that they all
have equal average gray level run length. Features extracted from the
normalized GLRLM's are independent of the surface geometry. Experiments
for the discrimination of natural textures have been conducted. The results
demonstrated that these features have the ability to discriminate different
textures in a nontrivial 3-D scene.
I. INTRODUCTION
T EXTURE IS one of the important properties used in
identifying objects or regions of interest in an image,
whether the image be a photomicrograph, an aerial photo-
graph, or a satellite image [l]. Texture is one of the
fundamental pattern elements used in interpreting pictorial
information. Textural properties of image regions are often
used for classification (e.g., of terrain types or materials) or
for segmentation of the image into differently textured
regions. The classification of pictorial data can be made on a
resolution cell basis or on a block of contiguous resolution
cells [2].
Texture is also a well-known source of geometric clues to
three-dimensional surface structure [3]. The variations in size,
density, eccentricity, and orientation of the texture elements are
hardly random; they are predictable consequences of the
foreshortening and size scaling that occurs when a uniformly
textured tilted surface is viewed under perspective projection
[4]. Scaling and foreshortening affect the appearance of
texture independently. All dimensions of the projection of a
texture element scale inverse with distance. This suggests
decomposing the recovery of shape from texture into
recovery of distance from cues that depend only on scaling,
and recovery of surface orientation from cues that depend
only on foreshortening.
In this paper we intend to find a method based on texture run
length that can analyze the surfaces of a scene to recover the
three-dimensional relations. In Section 11, the key methodolo-
gies and techniques of our experiments are introduced. The
results of the experiments are analyzed in Section 111. The
Manuscript received March 30, 1987; revised November 9, 1987.
H.-H. Loh and R. C. Luo are with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-
7911.
G. Leu is with the Department of Computer Science, Wayne State
University, Detroit, MI 48202.
IEEE Log Number 882007 1.
0278-0O46/88/0500-0323$01.OO
evaluation of the entire system and techniques used is
presented in Section IV.
11. GLRLM NORMALIZATION
A . Gray Level Run Length Approach
A wide variety of features have been used for visual texture
analysis. Some of these feature sets have included features based
on gray level run lengths, but these features have not
been used extensively. A gray level run is a set of
consecutive, collinear picture points having the same gray
level value. The length of the run is the number of picture
points (pixels) in the run.
The major reason for the use of the GLRLM's as the bases
of the features is that the length of the runs reflect the size of
the texture elements. For example, if the distance between
the surface and the camera is shortened, then the perceived
texture elements will be enlarged and the corresponding gray
level runs will be lengthened. Hence, the length of the runs is
in reverse proportion to the distance between the camera and
the object surface.
Furthermore, if the alignment of the texture is rotated with
respect to the camera line of sight for specific angle U, the
GLRLM's for a given direction r will be recorded under the
direction w + r. Hence, the GLRLM's also contain the
information about the alignment of the texture. Finally, the
surface slant and surface tilt of a textured surface are also
reflected in the GLRLM's. The run length in the direction of
tilt will be foreshortened in proportion to the cosine of the
angle between the surface normal and the camera line of
sight (surface slant). The run lengths in the direction
perpendicular to the surface tilt direction will not be
foreshortened. From the above discussion it is found that the
GLRLM's respond to the range and orientation of a textured
surface in a direct and meaningful way.
For a given picture, we can compute a set of the gray level
run length matrices (GLRLM's) for runs with any given
direction. However , we usually only take four principle
directions (0", 45 ', 90", 135 ") in computing the run lengths.
The matrix element (i, j ) specifies the number of times
that the picture contains a run length j in the given direction,
consisting of points having gray level i (or lying in gray
level range i).
Our experiments will mainly be based on the gray level run
length approach, which means we will use the same statistical
methods to extract the textural features from the GLRLM's of
our images. A textural feature is a distinguishing primitive
O 1988 IEEE
324 IEEE TRANSACTIONSON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 35, NO. 2, MAY 1988

characteristic or attribute of an image field. After normalizing Digitized

Image Textures
the GLRLMs, numerical measures are then extracted. They can
be used to characterize our image texture statistically. These 1
features can be used in conjunction with more sophisti-cated I PREPROCESSING I

A
pattern classification techniques for the purposes of three-
dimensional scene analysis.
COMPUTINGGLRLMS
B. Preprocessing
Fig. 1 illustrates the procedures we used for extracting the
features. First, video images are digitized from a camera, NORMALIZED FEATURES EXTRACTION
and those digitized images are preprocessed. The
computation of GLRLMs from the images follows. f
In our experiment, the only preprocessing employed was Image Features

the nonhomogeneous illumination adjustment or background
subtraction. For various reasons, most natural texture images
were not under a homogeneous or uniform illumination
condition when the image was taken. Since our GLRLMs are
based on the pixels gray level, it was necessary to make such
adjustments to our images before computing our GLRLMs.
Details of the preprocessing procedure can be found in [ 5 ] .
C. Constructing GLRLMs
After adjusting the nonhomogeneous illumination, the
GLRLMs were computed. Computation of these matrices is
relatively simple. First, we reduced the image size (e.g., 132
* 132 in our experiment) so that all texture features were
preserved and the computation was simplified, because the
number of calculations is in direct proportion to the number
of points in the image.
D. Computing ARL and Features from GLRLMs
Fig. 1. Flow chart of the features extraction
normalizing factors (one for each direction considered) are
stored for use in the recovery of surface range and orien-
tation.
To obtain numerical texture measures from the GLRLMs,
we compute functions analogous to those used by Haralik
[6] for gray level cooccurrence matrices. Some are similar to
those proposed by Galloway [7]. The following six features
are widely used in our experiments; these features are all
extracted from our GLRLMs.
Some of the elements of our features are defined as
following:
P(i,j ) the (i,j ) t h entry in the given run length matrix.
Ng: the number of gray levels in the image.
Nr: the number of different run lengths that occur (so
that the matrix is Ng by Nr).

In order to make the extracted textural features The following are all the features we used shown in order:
independent with the surface range and orientation, the 1) Second moment with respect to the run length (long
GLRLMs need to be normalized. To do so, we need first run emphasis)
compute the average gray level run length (ARL) of the
GLRLMs. As we shall see later, the ARL was one of the
most important properties of the GLRLMs used. Let P(i, j )
be the (i, j ) t h entry of a given GLRLM, Ngbe the (3)
number of gray levels in the image, and Nr be the length of
the longest run considered. The ARL can be computed as

This function multiplies each run length value by the length

of the run squared. This should emphasize long runs. The
denominator is the total number of runs in the picture that can
i = l j-1
be used to normalize the difference from image size.
2) First moment with respect to the gray level
The denominator in the above equation is the total
number of runs in the matrix. In the numerator, each run
count is weighted by the length of the run. The GLRLM
under consideration is normalized by multiplying the length
(4)
of every run in it by a normalizing factor.
K
NF= - .
ARL
This function multiplies each run length value by its gray
The K is a system-wide constant. Any normalized GLRLM level. This should help to determine the gray tone of texture.
should have its average run length equal or close to K . The 3 ) Second moment with respect to the gray level (bright
LOH el al. : RUN LENGTH TEXTURE FEATURES
color emphasis)
This function multiplies each run length value by the gray
level squared. This should emphasize the bright color.
4) Gray level nonuniformity
/
This function squares the number of run lengths for each
gray level. The sum of the squares is then divided by the
normalization factor of the total number of runs in the
image. This measures the gray level nonuniformity of the
image. When runs are equally distributed throughout the
gray levels, the function takes on its lowest values. High run
length values contribute most of the function.
5 ) Run length nonuniformity
(7)
/ axis, we can rotate the textural surface to a certain angle to
This function squares the number of runs for each length.
The sum of the squares is then divided by the normalizing
factor. This function measures the nonuniformity of the run
length. If the runs are equally distributed throughout the
lengths, the function will have a low value. Large run counts
contribute most to the function.
6) Sum of variance
Ng Nr
F6= ((NF j )- U J 2 P(i,j) (8)
; = Ij = l
where
This function multiplies each run length value by the
square of the difference between its run and the average run
length of its gray level. This function emphasizes the run
length nonuniformity on each gray level base. When runs of
the same gray level have the same length, the function
should have the lowest values.
Note that when computing those features, all diagonal run
lengths should be multiplied by the square root of 2, in order to
325
determine the difference in the distance length between the
diagonal run lengths and other run lengths. Some details of
our experiments and the analysis of our experiment results
will be demonstrated in the next section.
111. EXPERIMENTATIONANDRESULTS
In this section we describe the details of our experiment.
The design of the experiments is overviewed. The results of
our experiment, including the basic analysis, are presented.
A . Experimental Setup
The experiments can be divided into four parts-perception
distance, rotation, tilt and slant, and image texture classifica-
tions. The first three parts used the natural textures as
mentioned in Section 11. Those textures, shown in Fig. 2,
were selected from Brodatzs album [8]. The fourth part,
image texture classification, uses the features derived from
those natural textures.
In the perception distance part, the coarseness property can be
well presented by the average run length of pictures, so that the
ARLs in the picture decrease proportionally as the distance
between camera and the surface becomes longer. The
relationship between the value of the ARLs and the perception
distance between camera and the surface can be demonstrated in
the experimental results later in this section.
In our experiment we used several pictures that were being
enlarged from an original picture in order to simulate the
effect of varying distance; the original picture together with
other pictures simulated from it became a set of testing
pictures. We may compute and normalize GLRLMs from
those picture sets.
Using the line between the camera and the surface as an
get pictures with different orientation. In the experiment we
used pictures with the same texture, but with different
rotation with respect to the camera line of sight, and
computed their GLRLMs. We then extracted the features of
each GLRLM. Comparing these features, we found that the
pictures direc-tional property can be preserved within the
GLRLMs. The angle rotated between these pictures can be
determined by analyzing their coordinate features.
Recovering the effect caused by surface tilt and slant is
probably the hardest part of our experiment. The tilted and
slanted pictures are more complicated than the pictures with
different perception distances and orientation. All dimensions
of the projection of a texture element scale inversely with
distance. However, only the dimension in the direction of
greatest distance gradient (known as the direction of tilt) is
foreshortened when a surface is viewed obliquely; that
dimension is compressed by an amount equal to the cosine of
the angle between the surface normal and the line of sight
(known as the slant angle). Since the direction of tilt is
unknown, we will need to normalize the tilted surface from
all four directions. The features obtained from the normalized
GLRLMs provide a very good base in doing texture classifi-
cation. As shown later, the normalization greatly improves
the features quality compared to the features extracted before
normalization.
326
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 35, NO. 2,

Average
run length

(pixe Is)

(4
Fig. 2 Image textures used in
experiments.

0 100 133 177 235(%)


Surfaces in the three-dimensional world can have all
kinds of relative location with the camera. In this section,
we are going to take those normalized features obtained
from our experiment to classify pictures into different
categories. We are using a pattern-clustering technique to
classify pictures from their normalized features.
In this pattern-clustering technique, we condense the de-
scription of relevant features of image textures into points in
a 2-D figure with X and Y axes. Each point in the figure
represents a value for the feature vector {U,, U*} applied to
a different picture. The measurement value for a feature
should be correlated with the picture's categories. Feature
vector values were clustered based on the picture from
which they were derived.
In the 2-D figure, we first choose two features from a
possible 24 (6 features in 4 directions) of each picture to
form the feature vectors for all pictures. Then, feature
vector from pictures are used to partition the figure into
regions where each represents a different category.
Once a figure has been partitioned into regions, unknown
pictures can then be classified by their feature vectors. Since
we may need several figures to classify all the categories,
the unknown pictures may also need to be marked on
several figures with their feature vectors to determine their
category.
B. Experimental Results ana' Analysis
In this paper, three enlarged pictures were simulated from
each original picture. The rates of enlargement are 133-
percent linear (or 177-percent area), 177-percent linear (or 3
13-percent area), and 235-percent linear (or 553-percent
area), respectively.
From each of these 24 pictures (including the original
pictures), four GLRLM's were computed, one for each principal
direction (0", 45", 90, and 135 "). Then the average run length
(ARL) was computed from each GLRLM. The overall average
run length for each picture can also be found. A typical average
run length versus perception distance (rate of reduction or
enlargement) is shown in Fig. 3, which is taken from the second
picture set. It shows that the average run
i/ Perception distance
Fig. 3. A typical average run length value versus llperception
distance CUNe.
length values change almost linearly with the perception
distance. This indicates that the run length matrix responses to
the perception distance change directly. After the ARL's have
been found, the normalized factor (NF) can be computed.
Features extracted from a GLRLM can now be normalized with
its normalizing factor, so that these features are indepen-dent of
the perception distance differences. Fig. 4 shows a typical
feature value versus perception distance curve. Part (a) of Fig. 4
shows the feature values before normalization, and part (b)
shows the same features after normalization. The reason we put
only three features on the figure is because these were the only
three features that had to be normalized. Each feature was
normalized according to how run length ( j ) is used in its
expression. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that before normalization
each feature responded to the perception dis-tance changes in
its own way. After normalization, the curves appear to be flat
and independent of perception distance.
In rotation, we still used :he six original pictures as in the
experiment of Part I; however, other pictures were simulated
to let them rotate a certain degree (i.e., 45", 90, and 135").
From each of the 24 pictures, four GLRLM's were
computed. All six features and the average run length were
computed from each GLRLM. When the picture rotated a
certain degree, the direction with the longest ARL also
rotated the same degree. The same thing happens to the
features of GLRLM's, which proves that the rotated pictures
still preserve their run length properties.
Consider the textural features under different
combinations of direction of tilt and slant angle. After all
the computation of the GLRLM's, the normalized features
can be extracted. With those features, the pictures can be
classified in the texture classification part. The feature
properties before and after normalization are shown in Fig.
5. Those features are extracted from the second picture set,
and the direction of tilt is 0 degrees.
Using the pattern clustering techniques as described above,
we can get figures that have been partitioned into regions. A
LOH et al. : RUN LENGTH TEXTURE FEATURES

9 -

8-

Feature
value
(at 0')

3 -

- 0
0

I/

Fig. 4. A typical feature value versus Uperception distance curve. (a) Before normalization. @) After normalization.

7
Feature
value
(at 0') 5

0
0'
Slant angle
(a)
Fig. 5. A typical feature vale versus slant angle curve.

categories. Those lines were drawn according to the clustering

centers of the category or category group. Put lines between two
typical figure is shown in Fig. 6. In this figure, one feature nearby categories or category groups; the figures can then be
value is plotted against another for all the pictures. There are partitioned into regions. Using those regions in the figures,
many possible combinations among all the features we have.
The feature selection is important to separate clearly all the
pictures into different categories. Take Fig. 6 as an example;
each point in these figures represents a picture. The alphabet
in each point shows what categqry the picture belongs to.
Note that in Fig. 6 , the capital letters representing two points
are overlaid.
We may also find in Fig. 6 that most points in these figures
can be easily separated with several lines according to their

we can define the category of unknown pictures
according to their features.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, a set of texture features based on the
GLRLM's was suggested in this experiment. We derived
the GLRLM's from the pictures first; then, a set of features
was extracted and normalized. These features can be used in
three-dimensional scene analysis where textures need to be
identi-fied according to their differences. Based on the
average run length information and the classification results,
surface range as well as surface orientation of a textured
surface can be recovered. As we have shown in this section,
it is obvious that the texture features based on gray level run
length matrices can be used in 3-D scene analysis.
328 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 35, NO. 2, MAY I988

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0.1836+ b
0.18241
0.18121 b
0.18001 b
0.17881 b
0.1776+
0.17641
0.17531

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[5] H.-H. Loh, Run-length features applied to 3-D perception to
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