A generalised digital contour coding scheme

A generalised coding scheme is proposed for two-tone image contours. The basic idea is to detect digital line segments on the contour and code them using fixed length or variable length codewords. It can be shown that the conventional contour run length coding using 8 or 4 direction Freeman's chain code is a special case of the present scheme. The data compressibility is tested on several closed contours and their noisy degraded versions. The effect of gradual increases of noise level on the relative compressibility with respect to the conventional method is also studied, Extension of the work has also been proposed. +~ 1985 Academic Press, Inc.