Parallel distance transforms on a linear array architecture

Abstract

Distance transformation (DT) has been widely used for image matching and shape analysis. In this paper, a parallel algorithm for computing distance transformation is presented. First, it is shown that the algorithm has an execution time of 6N - 4 cycles, for an N x N image using a parallel architecture that requires [N/2] parallel processors. By doing so, the real time requirement is fulfilled and its execution time is independent of the image contents. In addition, a partition method is developed to process an image when the parallel architecture has a fixed number of processing elements (PEs); say two or more. The total execution time for an N x N image by employing a fixed number of PEs is 2[N-2/M + 2(M - 1)], when M is the fixed number of PEs. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.