Chapter 6. Morphological Image Processing

In this chapter, we will discuss mathematical morphology and morphological image processing. Morphological image processing is a collection of non-linear operations related to the shape or morphology of features in an image. These operations are particularly suited to the processing of binary images (where pixels are represented as 0 or 1 and, by convention, the foreground of the object = 1 or white and the background = 0 or black), although it can be extended to grayscale images.

In morphological operations, a structuring element (a small template image) is used to probe the input image. The algorithms work by positioning the structuring element at all possible locations in the input image and comparing it with the corresponding neighborhood of the pixels with a set operator. Some operations test whether the element fits within the neighborhood, while others test whether it hits or intersects the neighborhood. A few popular morphological operators...