A contour processing method for fast binary neighbourhood operations

In this paper new fast algorithms for erosion, dilation, propagation and skeletonization are presented. The key principle of the algorithms is to process object contours. A queue is implemented to store the contours in each iteration for the next iteration. The contours can be passed from one operation to another as well. Contour filling and object labelling become available by minor modifications of the basic operations. The time complexity of the algorithms is linear with the number of contour elements to be processed. The algorithms prove to be faster than any other known algorithms..