Structuring element decomposition for efficient implementation of morphological filters

Abstract

In order to implement morphological filters on image processing systems. The size of the structuring element must be small due to the architectural constraints of the systems. The decomposition of the structuring element is required for filters with large structuring elements. An algorithm for the decomposition of an arbitrary 4-connected binary structuring element is developed which enables sub-optimal implementation of binary morphological filters on a 3/spl times/3 pipeline machine. The given structuring element is first decomposed into the union of elements using a sequential search procedure, then each element is further decomposed optimally into 3/spl times/3 elements, resulting in final sub-optimal 3/spl times/3 hybrid decomposition. The proposed algorithm is applied to some structuring elements and results close to the optimum are obtained.