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A Novel Algorithm to Extract Connected Components in a Binary Image of

Vehicle License Plates

Article · January 2012

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 P. Kumar, S. R. Giri, G. R. Hegde and K. Verma / IJECCT 2012, Vol. 2 (2) 27

A Novel Algorithm to Extract Connected Components in

a Binary Image of Vehicle License Plates
Prakash Kumar1, Saumya Ranjan Giri1, Ganesh Rama Hegde2, Kanchan Verma1
1
IL&FS Technologies, Bhubaneswar
2
International Institute of Information Technology Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar, 751003, India
Email: raiprakas@gmail.com,saumya.giri07@gmail.com,hegde10122@gmail.com, kanchan.2405@gmail.com

Abstract: This paper presents a simple and a novel

sequential algorithm to find connected components in a
binary image of vehicle license plate. Many classical
algorithms have used the approach of equivalence classes
and labels to find connected components that are both fast
and efficient. Our algorithm extracts the connected
components with 100% accuracy using “tree” data
structure. The extraction is accomplished by forward
scanning only.

Keywords - Image processing; connected components;

forward scanning; 2D binary image; sequential
algorithm; tree data structure, vehicle license plate

I. INTRODUCTION
Image Segmentation is a vital step for character
extraction in the popular and widely used License Plate
Recognition System for vehicles. Thresholding, edge
detection, connected components labeling and watershed
transformations form the widely used categories in image
segmentation. Out of this connected component analysis
is a relatively simple approach to isolate regions of
interest in an image. Medical Imaging and Industrial
applications widely use this approach to identify dark
objects in an image against a dark background.
Coloured digital images can be converted into a binary
form that shall retain all the essential details. We assume
that the regions of interest are denoted as dark regions
(black pixels or logical 0) against a white background
(white pixels or logical 1).The regions of interest if
extracted accurately from a binary image can be used
further for pattern recognition and analysis.
Given a binary image with two connected components
as shown in Figure 1, our objective is to find two sub-
images that contain the individual connected components
as shown in Figure 1 on the bottom.
Figure 1. Input binary image with two connected components
(top) and the separated connected components (bottom).
We make a general statement as follows:
Input: Given a 2D binary image with N connected
components.
Output: N images with reduced dimensions containing
each connected component as in the input.
Each image can further be analyzed using optical
character recognition. To elucidate further
mathematically, consider a segmented binary image M of
r disjoint regions Mi as in Equation (1). M consists of
foreground objects and a background.
We denote the background as the set of white pixels
and the foreground as the set of black pixels where the
superscript ‘c’ denotes the complement set of .Thus we
have,
 P. Kumar, S. R. Giri, G. R. Hegde and K. Verma / IJECCT 2012, Vol. 2 (2)
To find the connected components, we define the pixel
connection in terms of neighbourhoods. The
neighbourhood of a pixel is the set of pixels in an image
that it touches. Consider pixel P1 as shown below in
Figure 2 with its eight neighbors P2, P3……P9.The
equivalent 2D matrix coordinates in shown at the bottom
of Figure 2.
Thus we can define set Ф of pixels to be a connected
component if there is at least one path in Ф that joins
every pair {u, v} of pixels in Ф. The path must contain
pixels in Ф.
The paper is divided into following sections. Section II
highlights some of the previous work done on connected
components. Section III and Section IV discuss the
illustration of our proposed algorithm and the algorithm
respectively. Section V discusses the conclusion and
future work possible.
Figure 2. 8-neighbourhood of pixel P1 (top) and equivalent 2D
matrix coordinate representation (bottom).
II. PREVIOUS WORK DONE ON CONNECTED
COMPONENTS
A lot of work has be done successfully in this area over
the past four decades starting with the classic connected
components labeling algorithm [1,2].It required O(n3)
time to sequentially label regions in a binary image two-
raster scan passes through the image [11].
FPGA implementation has been well established using
a preprocessing step without buffering the image and
using a stream based processing [10].This process is a
parallel algorithm requiring two passes while the single-
pass FPGA [2] implementation uses a single-pass only.
Single pass algorithms focus on merging regions of
interest and relabeling in the same step to avoid the
second pass.
28
The Neighbors-scan labeling approach also requires a
single pass through the image [9].This approach can also
capture essential characteristics of the connected
components like size, position and bounding rectangle.
The labeling algorithms also resolve label equivalences on
a region when merging with the neighbors of interest as
described in [11].
A majority of these algorithms give great results in
terms of accuracy and faster execution time. Our
endeavour has been to give another simple and accurate
approach to find connected components in a binary image
for the application of License Plate Recognition System
using “tree” data structure. We call our algorithm
“SAGAP” which means a “fishing net” in Itbayaten
language spoken in Western Philippines. We are
interested in netting all black pixels from the image ‘sea’
that make a connected component!
III. ILLUSTRATION OF SAGAP
ALGORITHM
Figure 3. Two dimensional Image in matrix form with connected
components
Figure 3 represents two different connected
components as black pixels in a binary image along with
their co-ordinates. The dashed arrows show the direction
of scanning. Connected component-1 consists of black
pixels at (7, 3), (8, 3), (7, 4) and (9, 4) co-ordinates.
Connected component-2 consists of black pixels at (3, 4),
(3, 5) and (4, 5) co-ordinates.
A. Generation of tree
While scanning we hit the first black pixel at co-
ordinate (7, 3). So we create a node and store the
corresponding row and column value i.e. 7 and 3.
 P. Kumar, S. R. Giri, G. R. Hegde and K. Verma / IJECCT 2012, Vol. 2 (2) 29

Figure 4. Node for co-ordinate (7, 3)

Then we find all the 8-neighbourhood pixels of the

current black pixel i.e. (7, 3). The neighbourhood pixels
are (8,3) and (7,4). So we create two nodes and store the
row and column values in the nodes. The nodes are linked
with the current pixel node i.e. (7,3) as shown in figure 5.

Figure 6.Linking of previous and current nodes for

connected component-1

Figure 7.Tree containing all black pixels as nodes

Finally the tree is constructed. Now the next step is to

group together all connected pixels. Let us name the
nodes as demonstrated in figure 8.
Figure 5. The black pixels of connected component-1 in node
format

We continue scanning in the same direction and hit the

second black pixel (8, 3). Similarly we create a node for
this pixel and link all the neighbourhood pixels with the
pixel (8, 3). Finally we link the previous node with the
current node as shown in figure 6.Similarly we create
nodes for every black pixel, link them with their
neighbourhood pixels and link them with each other. The
final tree will be as depicted in figure 7.
Figure 8. Nomenclature of nodes in the tree

First of all, compare Bottom of Current node with all

Top nodes except Current.

Thus we compare (8, 3) i.e. Bottom of (7,3) with

Next of Current i.e. (8,3). Since it is equal, we
merge Next of Current node with Current.
 P. Kumar, S. R. Giri, G. R. Hegde and K. Verma / IJECCT 2012, Vol. 2 (2) 30

Then delete the node (8, 3) because it is a

duplicate node. Duplicate nodes are removed
before joining. Then compare all the Bottom
nodes of Current including Top node of Current
with all the nodes of Next of Current. When two
nodes match, delete the node from Next of
Current and there is no need to compare the
same node of Current with other nodes of Next
of Current. Thus the comparison is done as
follows:
(7, 3) – (7, 3) -> Matched. Thus delete
(7,3) from Next of Current
(8, 3) – (7, 4) -> Unmatched. So do not
delete (7, 4) from Next of Current
(8, 3) – (9, 4) -> Unmatched. So do not
Figure 10.Final Tree structure for the connected components
delete (9, 4) from Next of Current
(7, 4) – (7, 4) -> Matched. Thus delete (7, These two sets represent two independent connected
4) from Next of Current components. Now construct two separate images for these
At the end, node (9, 4) is left in Next of Current. two sets.
Now join (9, 4) with Current and update Bottom
to Next of Bottom as shown in the following B. How to Create Separate Images with new co-ordinate
figure 9. values

a) Find the minimum row and column values for

Current.

b) Find the maximum row and column values for

Current.

For this example max_row = 9, max_col = 4, min_row

Figure 9. The intermediate tree
= 7 and min_col = 3.
Create a 2D matrix of dimension [max_row – min_row
+1] [max_col – min_col +1].
a) For a given co-ordinate (x,y) the new co-ordinate
values will be [x – min_row + 1][y –min_col + 1] as
shown in Figure 11.

Now compare Bottom of Current i.e. (7, 4) with

Top node of Next of Current i.e. (3, 4). Since it
is not matched, compare with next Top node i.e.
(7, 4). It is matched. Do similar operations as
explained before.
When Bottom of Current reaches to Null, shift
Current to Next of Current and set Next of
Current. Do comparison as explained before.

The final tree will be as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 11. New co-ordinates for the connected components

 P. Kumar, S. R. Giri, G. R. Hegde and K. Verma / IJECCT 2012, Vol. 2 (2) 31

Now these new co-ordinate values will be filled with column value of the neighbourhood
black pixels and a new image will be created from that black pixel.
matrix. II. Set Bottom.Down = Temp node.
III. Set Bottom node = Temp node.
Similarly a new image will be constructed for the e. Repeat from Step- 4(c) to Step- 4(d) for every
second connected component. 8-neighbourhood black pixel.
5. End if
The final result will be in the form of two separate
6. If (Start node = null)
images as shown below.
Set Start node = Top node. Set Root = Top
node.
Else
Set Start. Right = Top node.
Set Start node= Top node.
7. End if
8. Repeat from Step-3 to Step-6 until every black
pixel of the matrix is visited.
9. Set Current = Root.
Figure 12. The separated connected components
10. Set Bottom = Current. Down.
III. The SAGAP Algorithm 11. Set Next = Current. Right.
The final algorithm of SAGAP to find the connected 12. Do
components in a binary image is presented below. If (Bottom.row = Next.row) AND (Bottom.col =
Next.col)
1. Read the binary image and store it in a matrix. a. Set Temp = Next. Set Next = Next.
2. Set Start node= Null. Set Root = Null. Down.
3. Read the matrix either row wise or column wise. Set Current. Right= Next. Set Next.
4. If (black pixel found) Right=Temp.Right. Delete node
a. Create a node (Top node) and store Temp.
corresponding row and column value in that b. Compare all nodes of Current with all
Top node. nodes of Next.
b. Set Bottom node = Top node. c. If (matched)
d. Delete the duplicate node from Next and
link accordingly.
e. Join the remaining nodes (unmatched) of
Next with Bottom and Set Current.
Right=Next. Right.

Else

Set Next=Next. Right.

Figure 13: Input image for SAGAP
Figure 14: Individual output sub-images from SAGAP
c. Search for all 8-neighbourhood black pixels of
the Top node.
d. If (neighbourhood black pixel found)
I. Create a new node (Temp) and
store the corresponding row and
13. Set Bottom=Bottom. Down. Set Next = Current.
Right.
14. Repeat Step 11 and Step 12 till Bottom reaches
to Null.
15. Set Current=Current.Right.Set Bottom=Current.
Down. Set Next=Current. Right.
16. Repeat from Step 11 to Step 14 until Next
reaches to Null.
V CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
We have developed a lucid and a novel algorithm
called SAGAP to find connected components in a binary
image of vehicle license plate. We have tested the
 P. Kumar, S. R. Giri, G. R. Hegde and K. Verma / IJECCT 2012, Vol. 2 (2)
algorithm on fifty binary images of vehicles in Indian
conditions of dimensions 3648 X 2736 pixels with
connected components and found the algorithm to be
100% accurate with the average execution time of 1 to 1.5
seconds. The testing was done using a Intel® Core™2 Duo
CPU with speed 2.20 GHz having 3GB RAM. The
algorithm is a tad slower than some algorithms but
nonetheless gives outstanding results. In the future we are
interested to make the execution time faster so that it can
be exploited further not only for this applications but also
for other real-time applications in image processing.
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