Fast parallel algorithm for distance transform

Abstract

We present an O((log log N)/sup 2/) -time algorithm for computing the distance transform of an N /spl times/ N binary image. Our algorithm is designed for the common concurrent read concurrent write parallel random access machine (CRCW PRAM) and requires O(N/sup 2+/spl epsi///log log N) processors, for any /spl epsi/ such that 0 < /spl epsi/ < 1. Our algorithm is based on a novel deterministic sampling scheme and can be used for computing distance transforms for a very general class of distance functions. We also present a scalable version of our algorithm when the number of processors is available p/sup 2+/spl epsi///log log p for some p < N. In this case, our algorithm runs in O((N/sup 2//p/sup 2/)+(N/p) log log p + (log log p)/sup 2/) time. This scalable algorithm is more practical since usually the number of available processors is much less than the size of the image.