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Quantum image edge detection based on eight-direction Sobel operator for NEQR

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Abstract

Quantum Sobel edge detection (QSED) is a kind of algorithm for image edge detection using quantum mechanism, which can solve the real-time problem encountered by classical algorithms. However, the existing QSED algorithms only consider two- or four-direction Sobel operator, which leads to a certain loss of edge detail information in some high-definition images. In this paper, a novel QSED algorithm based on eight-direction Sobel operator is proposed, which not only reduces the loss of edge information, but also simultaneously calculates eight directions’ gradient values of all pixel in a quantum image. In addition, the concrete quantum circuits, which consist of gradient calculation, non-maximum suppression, double threshold detection and edge tracking units, are designed in details. For a \({2^n} \times {2^n}\) image with q gray scale, the complexity of our algorithm can be reduced to O(\({n^2} + {q^2}\)), which is lower than other existing classical or quantum algorithms. And the simulation experiment demonstrates that our algorithm can detect more edge information, especially diagonal edges, than the two- and four-direction QSED algorithms.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62071240, 61802175), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20171458), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

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  1. School of Computer Science, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, Jiangsu, China

    Wenjie Liu

  2. School of Automation, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, Jiangsu, China

    Lu Wang

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  1. Wenjie Liu
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Correspondence to Wenjie Liu.

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Liu, W., Wang, L. Quantum image edge detection based on eight-direction Sobel operator for NEQR. Quantum Inf Process 21, 190 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-022-03527-4

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