Pyramid Architectures for Image Analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses some methods of image analysis that make use of a “pyramid” of reduced-scale representations of the information in the given image. Section 2 discusses “intensity pyramids” that consist of reduced-resolution versions of the image, and indicates how such pyramids provide an efficient means of performing “coarse” feature detection operations on the image. Section 3 describes “feature pyramids” based on the approximate representations of edges or curves, and shows that such pyramids can be used to efficiently detect simple shapes such as blobs and ribbons in an image. Section 4 suggests that pyramids provide a vehicle for “pixel-region cooperation” in which global properties of regions are able to influence the segmentation processes that give rise to these regions.