Object-oriented Communication in Image Processing Systems

Most image processing systems contain a set of predeened data structures which represent images, edges, regions etc. However, there is usually little support for user-deened data types or for extensions of existing types. Furthermore, it is often diicult to store customized data structures in les, or to send them between diierent processes. In this article, an object-oriented communication scheme based on persistent objects is presented. It will be demonstrated how such a mechanism can be incorporated into several existing image processing systems and what the advantages of the approach are. In this context, some general principles of object-oriented design and how they can be applied to so called computational networks will also be discussed.