Object detection and segmentation algorithm implemented on a reconfigurable embedded platform based FPGA

In this article, we present a mixed software/hardware Implementation on a Xilinx's Microblaze Soft core based FPGA platform. The reconfigurable embedded platform designed to support an important algorithm in image processing which is region color image segmentation for detecting objects based on RGB to HSL transformation. The proposed work is implemented and compiled on the embedded development kit EDK6.3i and the synthesis software ISE6.3i available with Xilinx Virtex-II FPGA using C++ language. The basic motivation of our application to radio isotopic images and neutron tomography is to assist physicians in diagnostics by taking out regions of interest. The system is designed to be integrated as an extension to the nuclear imaging system implemented around our nuclear research reactor. The proposed design can significantly accelerate the algorithm and the possible reconfiguration can be exploited to reach a higher performance in the future, and can be used for many image processing applications.