Abstract
Title : Perceptible level lines and Isoperimetric Ratio
Author : Jacques Froment
This paper introduces a simple criterion to select the most important
level lines from the numerous set obtained with a topographic map.
A topographic map gives a morphological and a geometrical representation
of the information contained in natural images.
Most of level lines are perceptually negligible and may be removed without
noticeable distortion. Such curves, which do not carry information on the
shape of the objects, are oscillating very quickly. They can be
discriminated from the others by means of the isoperimetric ratio of the
region they delimit. The main advantage of the isoperimetric criterion
lies in its invariance with respect to contrast changes. As a result of,
the topographic map of the remaining level lines achieves a segmentation
of the image with most borders matching the perceptual edges. This
segmentation being invariant under changes of contrast is a great
alternative to classical segmentation or edge detection methods, when
to be used to compare the content of two images, such as in stereo matching
or motion analysis applications.