Date of Award

Fall 12-2010

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Computing

School

Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair

Dia Ali

Committee Chair Department

Computing

Committee Member 2

Joe Zhang

Committee Member 2 Department

Computing

Committee Member 3

Jean Gourd

Committee Member 4

Ray Seyfarth

Committee Member 4 Department

Computing

Committee Member 5

Ras Pandey

Committee Member 5 Department

Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

The intriguing study of feature extraction, and edge detection in particular, has, as a result of the increased use of imagery, drawn even more attention not just from the field of computer science but also from a variety of scientific fields. However, various challenges surrounding the formulation of feature extraction operator, particularly of edges, which is capable of satisfying the necessary properties of low probability of error (i.e., failure of marking true edges), accuracy, and consistent response to a single edge, continue to persist. Moreover, it should be pointed out that most of the work in the area of feature extraction has been focused on improving many of the existing approaches rather than devising or adopting new ones. In the image processing subfield, where the needs constantly change, we must equally change the way we think.

In this digital world where the use of images, for variety of purposes, continues to increase, researchers, if they are serious about addressing the aforementioned limitations, must be able to think outside the box and step away from the usual in order to overcome these challenges. In this dissertation, we propose an adaptive and robust, yet simple, digital image features detection methodology using bidimensional empirical mode decomposition (BEMD), a sifting process that decomposes a signal into its two-dimensional (2D) bidimensional intrinsic mode functions (BIMFs). The method is further extended to detect corners and curves, and as such, dubbed as BEMDEC, indicating its ability to detect edges, corners and curves. In addition to the application of BEMD, a unique combination of a flexible envelope estimation algorithm, stopping criteria and boundary adjustment made the realization of this multi-feature detector possible. Further application of two morphological operators of binarization and thinning adds to the quality of the operator.

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