A two-dimensional edge detection scheme for general visual processing

This paper presents a new two-dimensional (2D) edge detection scheme for general visual processing. The scheme constructs a 2D edge detection functional under the guidance of the Laplacian of Gaussian (LOG) zero crossing contours to detect edges. The detection functional is optimal in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and edge localization accuracy (ELA) for detecting edges in 2D images; it also preserves the nice scaling property that is held uniquely by the LOG operator in scale space. The scheme also provides: (1) an edge regularization procedure; (2) an adaptive edge thresholding procedure; and (3) a scale space combining procedure. Experimental results on real images are given in the paper.