A grouping principle and four applications

Agnes Desolneux, Lionel Moisah, Jean-Michel Morel

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

148 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Wertheimer's theory suggests a general perception law according to which objects having a quality in common get perceptually grouped. The Helmholtz principle is a quantitative version of this general grouping law. It states that a grouping is perceptually "meaningful" if its number of occurrences would be very small in a random situation: Geometric structures are then characterized as large deviations from randomness. In two previous works, we have applied this principle to the detection of orientation alignments and boundaries in a digital image. In this paper, we show that the method is fully general and can be extended to a grouping by any quality. We treat as an illustration the alignments of objects, their grouping by color and by size, and the vicinity gestalt (clusters). Collaboration of the gestalt grouping laws and their pyramidal structure are illustrated in a case study.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)508-513
JournalIEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
Volume25
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2003
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

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Research Keywords

  • A contrario probabilistic model
  • Alignments
  • Binomial law
  • Clusters
  • Gestalt grouping laws
  • Histogram modes
  • Number of false alarms

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