Traditionally, the edge detection process requires one final step that is known as scaling. This is done to decide, pixel by pixel, if these will be selected as final edge or not. This can be considered as a local evaluation method that presents practical problems, since the edge candidate pixels should not be considered as independent. In this article, we propose a strategy to solve these problems through connecting pixels that form arcs, that we have called segments. To accomplish this, our edge detection algorithm is based on a more global evaluation inspired by actual human vision. Our paper further develops ideas 1 first proposed in Venkatesh and Rosin (Graph Models Image Process 57(2):146-160, 1995). These segments contain visual features similar to those used by humans, which lead to better comparative results against humans. In order to select the relevant segments to be retained, we use fuzzy clustering techniques. Finally, this paper shows that this fuzzy clustering of segments presents a higher performance compared to other standard edge detection algorithms.
KeywordsEdge detection • Global evaluation • Supervised classification • Fuzzy clustering • Edge segments Edge detection is quite useful in many fields. For instance, for the recognition of different pathologies in medical diagnoses (Sonka 2014), a field has grown in recent years. It is also used in images taken by satellites or drones-remote sensing-for agricultural purposes. Some other relevant fields of application are the military industry, law enforcement, among others (Monga et al. 1991; Fathy and Siyal 1995; Zielke et al. Communicated by I. Perfilieva.