<title>Systolic array for complete Euclidean distance transform</title>

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Euclidean distance transform (EDT) converts a binary image into one where each pixel has a value equal to the Euclidean distance to the nearest foreground pixel. It has important uses in image analysis, computer visionand robotics, and so its VLSI implementation is very useful. In this paper, a sequential algorithm which does not require global operations is first presented. We then present a square and a triangular shaped systolic arrays to real-ize the algorithm. For an n x n image on an equal size systolic array, the computing time is Sn—S. 1. INTRODUCTIONThe distance transformation (DT) converts a binary image consisting of foreround pixels and background pixels into an image where each pixel has a value equal to the distance to the nearest foreground pixel. It is a basic operation in computer vision and image analysis, used for object recognition, merging, segmentation, clustering,curve smoothing, matching and computing skeletons [8,9,10, 12]. The distance tran;form is also a useful tool for