Algorithm for Generating Body Medial Axes Based on Minimum Exterior Rectangle

Abstract

In this paper a new algorithm is proposed for extracting medial axes of object. This algorithm is based on minimum exterior rectangle and edge detection. First, edge detection algorithm is used to each image to obtain all the boundary points exactly, and the center of each object is evaluated. Then, the directions of major and minor axes of the object be obtained using the center-point and boundary-points. The four vertexes of the bounding rectangle are computed by pair wise solving the four straight lines. At last, using FMABR's short axes to scan the object boundary points, all the middle point of the line which made by the scan line and boundary points buildup the medial axes of the object's body. The algorithm has both simplicity and accuracy properties.