Microsoft Word - john_icita_ell.rtf

-In this paper, we present a fast and robust ellipse extraction method. The proposed method can extract ellipses with high accuracy and speed from images with complicated backgrounds. It consists of two parts. First, we extract arc segments from an ellipse approximated by short straight lines that are extracted by a fast line extraction algorithm. Second, the arc segments are used to calculate accurate ellipse parameters with a least squares ellipse fitting algorithm. Tests performed on synthetic and real-world images show that the method quickly and accurately extracts circles from complicated images.