Theory of edge detection
Abstract
A theory of edge detection is presented. The analysis proceeds in two parts. (1) Intensity changes, which occur in a natural image over a wide range of scales, are detected separately at different scales. An appropriate filter for this purpose at a given scale is found to be the second derivative of a Gaussian, and it is shown that, provided some simple conditions are satisfied, these primary filters need not be orientation-dependent. Thus, intensity changes at a given scale are best detected by finding the zero values of delta 2G(x,y)*I(x,y) for image I, where G(x,y) is a two-dimensional Gaussian distribution and delta 2 is the Laplacian. The intensity changes thus discovered in each of the channels are then represented by oriented primitives called zero-crossing segments, and evidence is given that this representation is complete. (2) Intensity changes in images arise from surface discontinuities or from reflectance or illumination boundaries, and these all have the property that they are spatially. Because of this, the zero-crossing segments from the different channels are not independent, and rules are deduced for combining them into a description of the image. This description is called the raw primal sketch. The theory explains several basic psychophysical findings, and the operation of forming oriented zero-crossing segments from the output of centre-surround delta 2G filters acting on the image forms the basis for a physiological model of simple cells (see Marr & Ullm…
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To deliver video streaming data to users connected with different types of networks and terminals may need to be adapted dynamically at intermediate locations within a network.
“To deliver video streaming data to users connected with different types of networks and having different terminals may need to be adapted dynamically at intermediate locations within a network [39].”
From Effectiveness of crypto-transcoding for H.264/AVC and HEVC video bit-streams (2019) · cites this paper as [39]
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- Authors
- Marr, D., & Hildreth, E.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 1980-02-29
- Volume
- 207
- Issue
- 1167
- Pages
- 187-217
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 2053-9193
- OpenAlex
- W2003370853
- Cited by
- 6,510
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 125 · 2025: 162 · 2024: 156 · 2023: 141 · 2022: 146 · 2021: 169 · 2020: 174 · 2019: 194 · 2018: 165 · 2017: 184 · 2016: 162 · 2015: 180 · 2014: 177 · 2013: 224 · 2012: 201
- FWCI
- 97.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Image and Object Detection Techniques
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Advanced Image Processing Techniques
- Keywords
- edge detection, Laplacian of Gaussian, scale space, intensity change, primal sketch, surface discontinuities, orientation independence, simple cells, visual psychophysics
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Form Perception, Humans, Mathematics, Vision, Ocular
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