Optimised single pass connected components analysis

Classical connected components labelling algorithms are unsuitable for real-time processing of streamed images on an FPGA because they require two passes through the image. Recently, a single-pass algorithm was proposed that avoided the need to buffer an intermediate image. In this paper, a new single pass algorithm is described that is a considerable improvement over the existing algorithms. The new algorithm reassigns and reuses labels each row to minimise the size of both the equivalence and region data tables. The optimised single-pass algorithm reduces the worst case memory requirement by over 100 times that of the original algorithm (for measuring region area), and reduces the latency to only 1 row.