imhmin

H-minima transform

Syntax

J = imhmin(I,H)

J = imhmin(I,H,conn)

Description

J = imhmin(I,H) suppresses all minima in the grayscale image I whose depth is less than H. Regional minima are connected components of pixels with a constant intensity value, t, whose external boundary pixels all have a value greater than t.

J = imhmin(I,H,conn) computes the H-minima transform, where conn specifies the connectivity.

Examples

Calculate H-Minima Transform

Create a sample image with two regional minima.

a = 10*ones(10,10);
a(2:4,2:4) = 7;  
a(6:8,6:8) = 2

a = 10×10

    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10     7     7     7    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10     7     7     7    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10     7     7     7    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10     2     2     2    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10     2     2     2    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10     2     2     2    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10

Suppress all minima below a specified value. Note how the region with pixels valued 7 disappears in the transformed image because its depth is less than the specified h value.

b = imhmin(a,4)

b = 10×10

    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10     6     6     6    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10     6     6     6    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10     6     6     6    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10
    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10    10

Input Arguments

I — Input image

numeric array

Input image, specified as a numeric array of any dimension.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

H — H-minima transform

nonnegative scalar

H-minima transform, specified as a nonnegative scalar.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

conn — Pixel connectivity

4 | 8 | 6 | 18 | 26 | 3-by-3-by- ... -by-3 matrix of 0s and 1s

Pixel connectivity, specified as one of the values in this table. The default connectivity is 8 for 2-D images, and 26 for 3-D images.

Value	Meaning
Two-Dimensional Connectivities
4-connected	Pixels are connected if their edges touch. The neighborhood of a pixel are the adjacent pixels in the horizontal or vertical direction.
8-connected	Pixels are connected if their edges or corners touch. The neighborhood of a pixel are the adjacent pixels in the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction.
Three-Dimensional Connectivities
6-connected	Pixels are connected if their faces touch. The neighborhood of a pixel are the adjacent pixels in: One of these directions: in, out, left, right, up, and down
18-connected	Pixels are connected if their faces or edges touch. The neighborhood of a pixel are the adjacent pixels in: One of these directions: in, out, left, right, up, and down A combination of two directions, such as right-down or in-up
26-connected	Pixels are connected if their faces, edges, or corners touch. The neighborhood of a pixel are the adjacent pixels in: One of these directions: in, out, left, right, up, and down A combination of two directions, such as right-down or in-up A combination of three directions, such as in-right-up or in-left-down

For higher dimensions, imhmin uses the default value conndef(ndims(I),'maximal').

Connectivity can also be defined in a more general way for any dimension by specifying a 3-by-3-by- ... -by-3 matrix of 0s and 1s. The 1-valued elements define neighborhood locations relative to the center element of conn. Note that conn must be symmetric about its center element. See Specifying Custom Connectivities for more information.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Output Arguments

J — Transformed image

numeric array

Transformed image, returned as a numeric array of the same size and data type as I.

References

[1] Soille, P. Morphological Image Analysis: Principles and Applications. Springer-Verlag, 1999, pp. 170-171.

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation

Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• imhmin supports the generation of C code (requires MATLAB^® Coder™). Note that if you choose the generic MATLAB Host Computer target platform, imhmin generates code that uses a precompiled, platform-specific shared library. Use of a shared library preserves performance optimizations but limits the target platforms for which code can be generated. For more information, see Types of Code Generation Support in Image Processing Toolbox.

• When generating code, the optional third input argument, conn, must be a compile-time constant.