Techniques for the Recognition of Silhouettes

Abstract

<p>A representative set of binary image processing techniques selected from the literature is described. The measurement of shape as the fundamental information contained in silhouettes is examined. Operations on digital binary images are demonstrated including smoothing, connectivity analysis and determination of position and orientation. The effects of digitizing errors at the boundary of a silhouette are discussed and examples of industrial vision systems which use binary images are presented.</p> <p>A binary image processing system has been designed and implemented. The apparatus is based on a General Electric TN2500 digital television camera and an Intel iSBC 86/12A microcomputer. Hardware for the acquisition of binary images from the camera is described followed by the software for calculating areas and centroids. The system is capable of "learning" a set of objects in a "Teach" mode and then making an identification based on their area in the "Run" mode.</p>