Lecture:

Edge Detection

Juan Carlos Niebles and Ranjay Krishna

Stanford Vision and Learning Lab

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 1 10-Oct-17

 Continuing from last lecture
• Linear Systems
• Convolution
• Correlation

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 2 2-Feb-18

 Linear Systems (filters)

• Linear filtering:
– Form a new image whose pixels are a weighted sum of
original pixel values
– Use the same set of weights at each point

• S is a linear system (function) iff it S satisfies

superposition property

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 3 6-Oct-16

 2D impulse function
• 1 at [0,0].
• 0 everywhere else

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 4 6-Oct-16

 LSI (linear shift invariant) systems
Impulse response

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 5 6-Oct-16

 Why are convolutions flipped?
Let’s first represent f[0,0] as a sum of deltas:
𝑓 0,0 = 𝑓 0,0 ×1
= 𝑓[0,0]×𝛿[0,0]
? ?

= < < 𝑓[𝑘, 𝑙]×𝛿 𝑘, 𝑙

CAB? @AB?
Or
? ?

= < < 𝑓[𝑘, 𝑙]×𝛿 −𝑘, −𝑙

CAB? @AB?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 6 10-Oct-17

 Why are convolutions flipped?
Let’s first represent f[1,1] as a sum of deltas:

𝑓 1,1 = 𝑓 1,1 ×1
= 𝑓[1,1]×𝛿[0,0]
? ?

= < < 𝑓[𝑘, 𝑙]×𝛿 1 − 𝑘, 1 − 𝑙

CAB? @AB?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 7 10-Oct-17

 Why are convolutions flipped?
Now for the general case, let J s write
f n, m as a sum of deltas:

𝑓 𝑛, 𝑚 = 𝑓 𝑛, 𝑚 ×1
= 𝑓[𝑛, 𝑚]×𝛿[0,0]
? ?

= < < 𝑓[𝑘, 𝑙]×𝛿 𝑛 − 𝑘, 𝑚 − 𝑙

CAB? @AB?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 8 10-Oct-17

 Why are convolutions flipped?
• Now, let’s pass this function through a linear
shift invariant (LSI) system:
M
𝑓 𝑛, 𝑚 → S[f[n,m]]
S[f[n,m]] = S[ ∑?CAB? ∑?@AB? 𝑓[𝑘, 𝑙]×𝛿 𝑛 − 𝑘, 𝑚 − 𝑙 ]

Let’s apply the superposition property here:

= ∑? ∑ ?
CAB? @AB? 𝑓 𝑘, 𝑙 𝑆[𝛿 𝑛 − 𝑘, 𝑚 − 𝑙 ]

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 9 10-Oct-17

 Why are convolutions flipped?
Copying the equation from the previous slide:
S[f[n,m]] = ∑? ∑ ?
CAB? @AB? 𝑓 𝑘, 𝑙 𝑆[𝛿 𝑛 − 𝑘, 𝑚 − 𝑙 ]

Finally, we know what happens when we pass a delta

function through a system right? We can use that here:
S[f[n,m]] = ∑? ∑ ?
CAB? @AB? 𝑓 𝑘, 𝑙 ℎ 𝑛 − 𝑘, 𝑚 − 𝑙

And this is how we get our flipped convolution function

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 10 10-Oct-17

Slide credit: Ulas Bagci

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 11 2-Feb-18

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 12 6-Oct-16

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 13 6-Oct-16

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 14 6-Oct-16

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 15 6-Oct-16

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 16 6-Oct-16

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 17 6-Oct-16

 2D convolution example

Slide credit: Song Ho Ahn

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 18 6-Oct-16

Slide credit: Wolfram Alpha

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 19 6-Oct-16

 (Cross) correlation (symbol: )
Cross correlation of two 2D signals f[n,m] and g[n,m]

? ?

𝑓 𝑛, 𝑚 ∗ ∗ ℎ 𝑛, 𝑚 = < < 𝑓 𝑘, 𝑙 ℎ 𝑘 − 𝑛, 𝑙 − 𝑚
CAB? @AB?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 20 6-Oct-16

 (Cross) correlation – example

Courtesy of J. Fessler
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 21 6-Oct-16
 (Cross) correlation – example

Courtesy of J. Fessler
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 22 6-Oct-16
 (Cross) correlation – example

Courtesy of J. Fessler
numpy’s
correlate
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 23 6-Oct-16
 (Cross) correlation – example
Left Right

scanline

Norm. cross corr. score

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 24 6-Oct-16

Convolution vs. (Cross) Correlation

f*h f**h

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 25 6-Oct-16

 Cross Correlation Application:
Vision system for TV remote
control
- uses template matching

Figure from “Computer Vision for Interactive Computer Graphics,” W.Freeman et al, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications,
1998 copyright 1998, IEEE

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 26 6-Oct-16

 properties
• Commutative property:

• Associative property:

• Distributive property:

The order doesn’t matter!

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 27 6-Oct-16
 properties

• Shift property:

• Shift-invariance:

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 28 6-Oct-16

Convolution vs. (Cross) Correlation
• A convolution is an integral that expresses the amount
of overlap of one function as it is shifted over another
function.
– convolution is a filtering operation

• Correlation compares the similarity of two sets of

data. Correlation computes a measure of similarity of
two input signals as they are shifted by one another.
The correlation result reaches a maximum at the time
when the two signals match best .
– correlation is a measure of relatedness of two signals

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 29 6-Oct-16

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform
Some background reading:
Forsyth and Ponce, Computer Vision, Chapter 8

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 30 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform
Some background reading:
Forsyth and Ponce, Computer Vision, Chapter 8

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 31 10-Oct-17

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 32 10-Oct-17
 (A) Cave painting at Chauvet, France, about 30,000 B.C.;
(B) Aerial photograph of the picture of a monkey as part of the Nazca Lines geoglyphs, Peru, about 700 – 200 B.C.;
(C) Shen Zhou (1427-1509 A.D.): Poet on a mountain top, ink on paper, China;
(D) Line drawing by 7-year old I. Lleras (2010 A.D.).

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 33 10-Oct-17

 Hubel & Wiesel, 1960s

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 34 10-Oct-17

 We know edges are special from
human (mammalian) vision studies

Hubel & Wiesel, 1960s

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 35 10-Oct-17

 We know edges are special from
human (mammalian) vision studies

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 36 10-Oct-17

 Walther, Chai, Caddigan, Beck & Fei-Fei, PNAS, 2011
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 37 10-Oct-17
 Edge detection
• Goal: Identify sudden
changes (discontinuities) in
an image
– Intuitively, most semantic and
shape information from the
image can be encoded in the
edges
– More compact than pixels

• Ideal: artist’s line drawing

(but artist is also using
object-level knowledge) Source: D. Lowe

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 38 10-Oct-17

 Why do we care about edges?
• Extract information,
recognize objects

• Recover geometry and Vertical vanishing

point
(at infinity)

viewpoint
Vanishing
line

Vanishing Vanishing
point point

Source: J. Hayes

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 39 10-Oct-17

 Origins of edges

surface normal discontinuity

depth discontinuity

surface color discontinuity

illumination discontinuity

Source: D. Hoiem

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 40 10-Oct-17

 Closeup of edges

Surface normal discontinuity

Source: D. Hoiem

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 41 10-Oct-17

 Closeup of edges

Depth discontinuity

Source: D. Hoiem

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 42 10-Oct-17

 Closeup of edges

Surface color discontinuity

Source: D. Hoiem

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 43 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 44 10-Oct-17

 Derivatives in 1D

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 45 10-Oct-17

 Derivatives in 1D - example

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 46 10-Oct-17

 Derivatives in 1D - example

Slide credit: Dr Mubarak

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 47 10-Oct-17
 Discrete Derivative in 1D

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 48 10-Oct-17

 Types of Discrete derivative in 1D
Backward

Forward

Central

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 49 10-Oct-17

 1D discrete derivate filters
• Backward filter: [0 1 -1]

• Forward: [-1 1 0]

• Central: [ 1 0 -1]

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 50 10-Oct-17

 1D discrete derivate filters
• Backward filter: [0 1 -1]

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 51 10-Oct-17

 1D discrete derivate filters
• Backward filter: [0 1 -1]

• Forward: [-1 1 0]

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 52 10-Oct-17

 1D discrete derivate example

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 53 10-Oct-17

 Discrete derivate in 2D

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 54 10-Oct-17

 Discrete derivate in 2D

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 55 10-Oct-17

 Discrete derivate in 2D

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 56 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative filters

What does this filter do?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 57 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative filters

What about this filter?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 58 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative - example

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 59 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative - example
What happens when we apply
this filter?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 60 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative - example
What happens when we apply this filter?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 61 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative - example
Now let’s try the other filter!

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 62 10-Oct-17

 2D discrete derivative - example
What happens when we apply this filter?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 63 10-Oct-17

 3x3 image gradient filters

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 64 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 65 10-Oct-17

 Characterizing edges
• An edge is a place of rapid change in the
image intensity function
intensity function
image (along horizontal scanline) first derivative

edges correspond to
extrema of derivative

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 66 10-Oct-17

 Image gradient
• The gradient of an image:

The gradient vector points in the direction of most rapid increase in intensity

The gradient direction is given by

• how does this relate to the direction of the edge?

The edge strength is given by the gradient magnitude

Source: Steve Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 67 10-Oct-17

 Finite differences: example

Original Gradient
Image magnitude

x-direction y-direction

• Which one is the gradient in the x-direction? How about y-direction?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 68 10-Oct-17
 Intensity profile

Intensity
Gradient

Source: D. Hoiem

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 69 10-Oct-17

 Effects of noise
• Consider a single row or column of the image
– Plotting intensity as a function of position gives a signal

Where is the edge? Source: S. Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 70 10-Oct-17

 Effects of noise

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 71 10-Oct-17

 Effects of noise
• Finite difference filters respond strongly to
noise
– Image noise results in pixels that look very
different from their neighbors
– Generally, the larger the noise the stronger the
response
• What is to be done?
– Smoothing the image should help, by forcing
pixels different to their neighbors (=noise pixels?)
to look more like neighbors
Source: D. Forsyth

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 72 10-Oct-17

 Effects of noise
• Finite difference filters respond strongly to
noise
– Image noise results in pixels that look very
different from their neighbors
– Generally, the larger the noise the stronger the
response
• What is to be done?
– Smoothing the image should help, by forcing
pixels different to their neighbors (=noise pixels?)
to look more like neighbors
Source: D. Forsyth

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 73 10-Oct-17

 Smoothing with different filters
• Mean smoothing

• Gaussian (smoothing * derivative)

Slide credit: Steve Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 74 10-Oct-17
 Smoothing with different filters

Slide credit: Steve Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 75 10-Oct-17
 Solution: smooth first
f

f*g

d
( f * g)
dx

d
• To find edges, look for peaks in ( f * g)
dx Source: S. Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 76 10-Oct-17

 Derivative theorem of convolution
• This theorem gives us a very useful property:
d d
( f * g) = f * g
dx dx
• This saves us one operation:

d
g
dx

d
f* g
dx Source: S. Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 77 10-Oct-17

 Derivative of Gaussian filter

* [1 0 -1] =

2D-gaussian x - derivative

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 78 10-Oct-17

 Derivative of Gaussian filter

x-direction y-direction

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 79 10-Oct-17

 Derivative of Gaussian filter

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 80 10-Oct-17

 Tradeoff between smoothing at different scales

1 pixel 3 pixels 7 pixels

• Smoothed derivative removes noise, but blurs

edge. Also finds edges at different “scales”.
Source: D. Forsyth

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 81 10-Oct-17

 Designing an edge detector
• Criteria for an “optimal” edge detector:
– Good detection: the optimal detector must minimize the probability of
false positives (detecting spurious edges caused by noise), as well as that
of false negatives (missing real edges)

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 82 10-Oct-17

 Designing an edge detector
• Criteria for an “optimal” edge detector:
– Good detection: the optimal detector must minimize the probability of
false positives (detecting spurious edges caused by noise), as well as that
of false negatives (missing real edges)
– Good localization: the edges detected must be as close as possible to
the true edges

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 83 10-Oct-17

 Designing an edge detector
• Criteria for an “optimal” edge detector:
– Good detection: the optimal detector must minimize the probability of
false positives (detecting spurious edges caused by noise), as well as that
of false negatives (missing real edges)
– Good localization: the edges detected must be as close as possible to
the true edges
– Single response: the detector must return one point only for each true
edge point; that is, minimize the number of local maxima around the
true edge

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 84 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel Edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 85 10-Oct-17

 Sobel Operator
• uses two 3×3 kernels which
are convolved with the original image to
calculate approximations of the derivatives
• one for horizontal changes, and one for
vertical

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 86 10-Oct-17

 Sobel Operation
• Smoothing + differentiation

Gaussian smoothing differentiation

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 87 10-Oct-17

 Sobel Operation
• Magnitude:

• Angle or direction of the gradient:

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 88 10-Oct-17

 Sobel Filter example

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 89 10-Oct-17

 Sobel Filter Problems

• Poor Localization (Trigger response in multiple adjacent pixels)

• Thresholding value favors certain directions over others
– Can miss oblique edges more than horizontal or vertical edges
– False negatives

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 90 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel Edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 91 10-Oct-17

 Canny edge detector
• This is probably the most widely used edge
detector in computer vision
• Theoretical model: step-edges corrupted by
additive Gaussian noise
• Canny has shown that the first derivative of
the Gaussian closely approximates the
operator that optimizes the product of
signal-to-noise ratio and localization

J. Canny, A Computational Approach To Edge Detection, IEEE Trans. Pattern

Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 8:679-714, 1986.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 92 10-Oct-17

 Canny edge detector
• Suppress Noise
• Compute gradient magnitude and direction
• Apply Non-Maximum Suppression
– Assures minimal response
• Use hysteresis and connectivity analysis to
detect edges

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 93 10-Oct-17

 Example

• original image
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 94 10-Oct-17
 Derivative of Gaussian filter

x-direction y-direction

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 95 10-Oct-17

 Compute gradients (DoG)

X-Derivative of Gaussian Y-Derivative of Gaussian Gradient Magnitude

Source: J. Hayes

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 96 10-Oct-17

 Get orientation at each pixel

Source: J. Hayes

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 97 10-Oct-17

 Compute gradients (DoG)

X-Derivative of Gaussian Y-Derivative of Gaussian Gradient Magnitude

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 98 10-Oct-17

 Canny edge detector
• Suppress Noise
• Compute gradient magnitude and direction
• Apply Non-Maximum Suppression
– Assures minimal response

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 99 10-Oct-17

 Non-maximum suppression
• Edge occurs where gradient reaches a maxima
• Suppress non-maxima gradient even if it
passes threshold
• Only eight angle directions possible
– Suppress all pixels in each direction which are not
maxima
– Do this in each marked pixel neighborhood

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 100 10-Oct-17

 Remove spurious gradients
𝛻𝐺 𝑥, 𝑦 is the gradient at pixel (x, y)

𝛻𝐺 𝑥, 𝑦 𝛻𝐺 𝑥, 𝑦 > 𝛻𝐺 𝑥′, 𝑦′
𝛻𝐺 𝑥, 𝑦 > 𝛻𝐺 𝑥′′, 𝑦′′

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 101 10-Oct-17

 Non-maximum suppression
• Edge occurs where gradient reaches a maxima
• Suppress non-maxima gradient even if it
passes threshold
• Only eight angle directions possible
– Suppress all pixels in each direction which are not
maxima
– Do this in each marked pixel neighborhood

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 102 10-Oct-17

 Non-maximum suppression
At q, we have a
maximum if the
value is larger than
those at both p
and at r.
Interpolate to get
these values.

Source: D. Forsyth

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 103 10-Oct-17

 Non-max Suppression

Before After
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 104 10-Oct-17
 Canny edge detector
• Suppress Noise
• Compute gradient magnitude and direction
• Apply Non-Maximum Suppression
– Assures minimal response
• Use hysteresis and connectivity analysis to
detect edges

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 105 10-Oct-17

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 106 10-Oct-17
 Hysteresis thresholding
• Avoid streaking near threshold value
• Define two thresholds: Low and High
– If less than Low, not an edge
– If greater than High, strong edge
– If between Low and High, weak edge

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 107 10-Oct-17

 Hysteresis thresholding
If the gradient at a pixel is
• above High, declare it as an ‘strong edge pixel’
• below Low, declare it as a “non-edge-pixel”
• between Low and High
– Consider its neighbors iteratively then declare it
an “edge pixel” if it is connected to an ‘strong
edge pixel’ directly or via pixels between Low and
High

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 108 10-Oct-17

 Hysteresis thresholding

strong edge pixel weak but connected

edge pixels

strong edge pixel

Source: S. Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 109 10-Oct-17

 Final Canny Edges

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 110 10-Oct-17

 Canny edge detector
1. Filter image with x, y derivatives of Gaussian
2. Find magnitude and orientation of gradient
3. Non-maximum suppression:
– Thin multi-pixel wide “ridges” down to single pixel width
4. Thresholding and linking (hysteresis):
– Define two thresholds: low and high
– Use the high threshold to start edge curves and the low
threshold to continue them

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 111 10-Oct-17

 Effect of s (Gaussian kernel spread/size)

original Canny with Canny with

The choice of s depends on desired behavior

• large s detects large scale edges
• small s detects fine features
Source: S. Seitz

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 112 10-Oct-17

 Gradients
(e.g. Canny)

Color

Texture

Combined

Human

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 113 10-Oct-17

 45 years of boundary detection

Source: Arbelaez, Maire, Fowlkes, and Malik. TPAMI 2011 (pdf)

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 114 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel Edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 115 10-Oct-17

 Intro to Hough transform
• The Hough transform (HT) can be used to detect
lines.
• It was introduced in 1962 (Hough 1962) and first
used to find lines in images a decade later (Duda
1972).
• The goal is to find the location of lines in images.
• Caveat: Hough transform can detect lines, circles
and other structures ONLY if their parametric
equation is known.
• It can give robust detection under noise and
partial occlusion
Stanford University Lecture 5 - 116 10-Oct-17
 Prior to Hough transform
• Assume that we have performed some edge detection,
and a thresholding of the edge magnitude image.
• Thus, we have some pixels that may partially describe
the boundary of some objects.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 117 10-Oct-17

Detecting lines using Hough transform
• We wish to find sets of pixels that make up
straight lines.
• Consider a point of known coordinates (xi;yi)
– There are many lines passing through the point
(xi ,yi ).
• Straight lines that pass that point have the
form yi= a*xi + b
– Common to them is that they satisfy the
equation for some set of parameters (a, b)

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 118 10-Oct-17

Detecting lines using Hough transform
• This equation can obviously be rewritten as
follows:
– b = -a*xi + yi
– We can now consider x and y as parameters
– a and b as variables.
• This is a line in (a, b) space parameterized by x
and y.
– So: a single point in x1,y1-space gives a line in (a,b)
space.
– Another point (x2, y2 ) will give rise to another line
(a,b) space.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 119 10-Oct-17

Detecting lines using Hough transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 120 10-Oct-17

Detecting lines using Hough transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 121 10-Oct-17

Detecting lines using Hough transform
• Two points (x1, y1) and(x2 y2) define a line in
the (x, y) plane.
• These two points give rise to two different
lines in (a,b) space.
• In (a,b) space these lines will intersect in a
point (a’ b’)
• All points on the line defined by (x1, y1) and
(x2 , y2) in (x, y) space will parameterize lines
that intersect in (a’, b’) in (a,b) space.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 122 10-Oct-17

 Algorithm for Hough transform
• Quantize the parameter space (a b) by dividing it into
cells
• This quantized space is often referred to as the
accumulator cells.
• Count the number of times a line intersects a given
cell.
– For each pair of points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) detected as an
edge, find the intersection (a’,b’) in (a, b)space.
– Increase the value of a cell in the range
[[amin, amax],[bmin,bmax]] that (a’, b’) belongs to.
– Cells receiving more than a certain number of counts (also
called ‘votes’) are assumed to correspond to lines in (x,y)
space.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 123 10-Oct-17

 Output of Hough transform
• Here are the top 20 most voted lines in the
image:

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 124 10-Oct-17

 Other Hough transformations
• We can represent lines as polar coordinates
instead of y = a*x + b
• Polar coordinate representation:
– x*cosθ + y*sinθ = ρ
• Can you figure out the relationship between
– (x y) and (ρ θ)?

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 125 10-Oct-17

 Other Hough transformations
• Note that lines in (x y)
space are not lines in
(ρ θ) space, unlike (a b)
space.
• A vertical line will have
θ=0 and ρ equal to the
intercept with the x-
axis.
• A horizontal line will
have θ=90 and ρ equal
to the intercept with
the y-axis.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 126 10-Oct-17

 Example video
• https://youtu.be/4zHbI-fFIlI?t=3m35s

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 127 10-Oct-17

 Concluding remarks
• Advantages:
– Conceptually simple.
– Easy implementation
– Handles missing and occluded data very gracefully.
– Can be adapted to many types of forms, not just lines
• Disadvantages:
– Computationally complex for objects with many parameters.
– Looks for only one single type of object
– Can be “fooled” by “apparent lines”.
– The length and the position of a line segment cannot be
determined.
– Co-linear line segments cannot be separated.

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 128 10-Oct-17

 What we will learn today
• Edge detection
• Image Gradients
• A simple edge detector
• Sobel Edge detector
• Canny edge detector
• Hough Transform

Stanford University Lecture 5 - 129 10-Oct-17