How to detect curves in a binary image?

Question

I have a binary image, i want to detect/trace curves in that image. I don't know any thing (coordinates, angle etc). Can any one guide me how should i start? suppose i have this image

I want to separate out curves and other lines. I am only interested in curved lines and their parameters. I want to store information of curves (in array) to use afterward.

Answer 1

It really depends on what you mean by "curve".

If you want to simply identify each discrete collection of pixels as a "curve", you could use a connected-components algorithm. Each component would correspond to a collection of pixels. You could then apply some test to determine linearity or some other feature of the component.

If you're looking for straight lines, circular curves, or any other parametric curve you could use the Hough transform to detect the elements from the image.

The best approach is really going to depend on which curves you're looking for, and what information you need about the curves.

reference links:

• Circular Hough Transform Demo
• A Brief Description of the Application of the Hough Transform for Detecting Circles in Computer Images
• A method for detection of circular arcs based on the Hough transform
• Google goodness