关键词: 边缘模型, 任意区域边缘提取, 粒, 行连通段, 图像分割

Abstract: Most of the algorithms for edge extraction are incompetent at edge extraction of arbitrary regions（in any shape or sparse）, and the edges obtained by these algorithms are not closely related to real objects in images. In this paper, it constructs an edge model related to granules in images. Then the algorithm for arbitrary region edge extraction（referred to as “AREE”）, which is used to fulfill the edge model related to granules in images, is presented. The edge model consists of four new concepts：topology information system, concept granule, connected granule and edge space. As a way of realizing the edge model, the AREE algorithm introduces some new concepts such as run（a run is a block of contiguous pixels of a connected granule in a row） and interior-point firstly, then presents and proves the theorem used to obtain edges, and finally extracts edges through searching the interior-points. The comparative analysis and the experimental results on various types of images show that the proposed algorithm is able to extract edges from arbitrary regions（they may be in any shape or sparse） accurately and quickly.

Key words: edge model, arbitrary region edge extraction, granule, run, image segmentation