ABSTRACT
The image analysis process requires us to take vast amounts of low-level pixel data and extract useful information. In this chapter we will explore methods to divide the image into meaningful regions which represent higher level information. We will discuss edge detection, line detection, and finally image segmentation. We will see that edge and line detection are important steps in one category of image segmentation methods.
The goal of image segmentation is to find regions that represent objects or meaningful parts of objects. Division of the image into regions corresponding to objects of interest is necessary before any processing can be done at a level higher than that of the pixel. Identification of real objects, pseudo objects, shadows, or actually finding anything of interest within the image requires some form of segmentation.
