Information theoretic analysis of canny edge detection in visual communication

Bo Jiang; Zia-ur Rahman

doi:10.1117/12.882826

3 June 2011 Information theoretic analysis of canny edge detection in visual communication

Bo Jiang, Zia-ur Rahman

Proceedings Volume 8056, Visual Information Processing XX; 80560N (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.882826
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2011, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

In general edge detection evaluation, the edge detectors are examined, analyzed, and compared either visually or with a metric for specific an application. This analysis is usually independent of the characteristics of the image-gathering, transmission and display processes that do impact the quality of the acquired image and thus, the resulting edge image. We propose a new information theoretic analysis of edge detection that unites the different components of the visual communication channel and assesses edge detection algorithms in an integrated manner based on Shannon's information theory. The edge detection algorithm here is considered to achieve high performance only if the information rate from the scene to the edge approaches the maximum possible. Thus, by setting initial conditions of the visual communication system as constant, different edge detection algorithms could be evaluated. This analysis is normally limited to linear shift-invariant filters so in order to examine the Canny edge operator in our proposed system, we need to estimate its "power spectral density" (PSD). Since the Canny operator is non-linear and shift variant, we perform the estimation for a set of different system environment conditions using simulations. In our paper we will first introduce the PSD of the Canny operator for a range of system parameters. Then, using the estimated PSD, we will assess the Canny operator using information theoretic analysis. The information-theoretic metric is also used to compare the performance of the Canny operator with other edge-detection operators. This also provides a simple tool for selecting appropriate edgedetection algorithms based on system parameters, and for adjusting their parameters to maximize information throughput.

Citation Download Citation

Bo Jiang and Zia-ur Rahman "Information theoretic analysis of canny edge detection in visual communication", Proc. SPIE 8056, Visual Information Processing XX, 80560N (3 June 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.882826

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