Robust document binarization with OFF center-surround cells

This paper presents a new method for degraded-document binarization, inspired by the attributes of the Human Visual System (HVS). It can deal with various types of degradations, such as uneven illumination, shadows, low contrast, smears, and heavy noise densities. The proposed algorithm combines the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pattern analysis and applications : PAA 2011-08, Vol.14 (3), p.219-234
Main Authors: Vonikakis, V., Andreadis, I., Papamarkos, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Artificial intelligence
Biological and medical sciences
Computer Science
Computer science
control theory
systems
Exact sciences and technology
Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Pattern Recognition
Pattern recognition. Digital image processing. Computational geometry
Theoretical Advances
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:This paper presents a new method for degraded-document binarization, inspired by the attributes of the Human Visual System (HVS). It can deal with various types of degradations, such as uneven illumination, shadows, low contrast, smears, and heavy noise densities. The proposed algorithm combines the characteristics of the OFF center-surround cells of the HVS with the classic Otsu binarization technique. Cells of two different scales are combined, increasing the efficiency of the algorithm and reducing the extracted noise in the final output. A new response function, which regulates the output of the cell according to the local contrast and the local lighting conditions is also introduced. The Otsu technique is used to binarize the outputs of the OFF center-surround cells. Quantitative experiments performed on a set of various computer-generated degradations, such as noise, shadow, and low contrast demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method against six other well-established techniques. Qualitative and OCR comparisons also confirm these results.
ISSN:1433-7541
1433-755X
DOI:10.1007/s10044-011-0214-1