Image processing apparatus and image processing method

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a contour-candidate-edge detecting unit that detects, as contour candidate edges, edges on the basis of a gradient magnitude of each pixel in a target image; a contour-edge detecting unit that detect contour edges by performing thresholding on gradient magnitudes of the contour candidate edges; an interpolation-line generating unit that generates a plurality of interpolation lines for connecting end points of respective end-point pairs on the basis of gradients of pixel values between the end points of the respective end-point pairs while each of the end point pairs is made up of an end point of an identical contour edge as a connection base and an end point of a different contour edge as a connection destination; and a contour-edge interpolating unit that selects one of the interpolation lines on the basis of gradients of pixel values of pixels on the interpolation lines, and interpolates a contour edge between end points, which are to be connected with the selected interpolation line, with the selected interpolation line.

Description

technical field

[0001] The present invention relates to an image processing device and an image processing method for detecting contour edges from an object image. Background technique

[0002] In general, edge detection within an image is performed by detecting the position where the gradient changes the most (the position where the gradient is steep and the value of the gradient strength is large compared to the surrounding area), basically, by calculating the gradient from the brightness value of the image Gradient strength, thresholding is performed on the gradient strength for detection. When such an edge detection method is used to detect a contour edge from an image, there are cases where the contour edge is blurred due to factors such as the accuracy of the edge detection algorithm, noise, blurring (blurring) of the image, or a subjective contour portion. An interruption occurred. As a method for connecting such interrupted and discrete contour edges, conventionall...

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