Escuela Profesional de

Ciencia de la Computación

ICC Fase 1

Computer graphics
Thresholding

MSc. Vicente Machaca Arceda

Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa

April 28, 2020

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Overview

1 Introduction
Objectives
Sample application

2 Point operators
Definition
Thresholding

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 Introduction

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
Objectives
Sample application

2 Point operators
Definition
Thresholding

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 Introduction Objectives

Objectives

Understand the difference between point, local and

operators in image processing.

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 Introduction Objectives

Objectives

Understand the difference between point, local and

operators in image processing.
Learn threshold method.

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 Introduction Sample application

Sample application

Figure: Sample application in pattern recognition

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 Introduction Sample application

Sample application

Figure: Sample application in pattern recognition

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 Point operators

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
Objectives
Sample application

2 Point operators
Definition
Thresholding

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 Point operators Definition

Point operators
Example

Figure: Point operator.

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 Point operators Definition

Point operators
Formal definition

Point operator
O{f [x, y ]} = g[x 0 , y 0 ]

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 Point operators Definition

Point operators
Examples

Thresholding
Contrast Stretching
Histogram Equalization
Logarithm Operator
Exponential/Raise to Power Operator

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding

Figure: The input for a thresholding operation is typically a grayscale or

color image. In the simplest implementation, the output is a binary
image representing the segmentation. Black pixels correspond to
background and white pixels correspond to foreground (or vice versa).

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding

(
0, if f [x, y ] < threshold
g[x, y ] =
1, otherwise

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Example

What threshold should we choose?

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 Point operators Thresholding

Histograms
Review

Figure: Histogram example.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Example

In this image we are going to

analyze what is the best
threshold.

Figure: A simple grayscale image.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Example

Figure: Histogram.

Figure: A simple grayscale image.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Example

A good threshold is 120.

Figure: Histogram.
Figure: A simple grayscale image.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Example

(
0, if f [x, y ] < 120
g[x, y ] =
1, otherwise

f [x, y ] g[x, y ]

Figure: A simple grayscale image. Figure: A simple binary image.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

Thresholding is also used to filter the output of or input to other

operators. For instance, in the former case, an edge detector
like Sobel.

Figure: Uses of thresholding.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

Thresholding can be used as preprocessing to extract an

interesting subset of image structures which will then be passed
along to another operator in an image processing chain.

Nervous cells (the large

gray blobs, with darker
circular nuclei in the
middle).
Glia cells (the isolated,
small, black circles).

Figure: A slice of brain tissue.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

Thresholding can be used as preprocessing to extract an

interesting subset of image structures which will then be passed
along to another operator in an image processing chain.

Nervous cells (the large

gray blobs, with darker
circular nuclei in the
middle).
Glia cells (the isolated,
small, black circles).

Figure: A slice of brain tissue.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

Thresholding this image so as to map all pixel values between 0

and 150 in the original image to foreground.

Figure: A slice of brain tissue. Figure: A slice of brain tissue.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

The resultant image can then be

connected-components-labeled in order to count the total
number of cells in the original image.

Figure: A slice of brain tissue. Figure: A slice of brain tissue.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

If we wanted to know how many nerve cells there are in the

original image.

Figure: Nerve cell.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Thresholding
Applications

If we wanted to know how (

many nerve cells there are in 0, if 130 < f [x, y ] < 150
g[x, y ] =
the original image, we 1, otherwise
threshold the image.

Figure: Nerve cell. Figure: Nerve cell binarized.

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 Point operators Thresholding

Questions?

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