Simple Fuzzy Rule Based Edge Detection

Most of the edge detection methods available in literature are gradient based, which further apply thresholding, to find the final edge map in an image. In this paper, we propose a novel method that is based on fuzzy logic for edge detection in gray images without using the gradient and thresholding. Fuzzy logic is a mathematical logic that attempts to solve problems by assigning values to an imprecise spectrum of data in order to arrive at the most accurate conclusion possible. Here, the fuzzy logic is used to conclude whether a pixel is an edge pixel or not. The proposed technique begins by fuzzifying the gray values of a pixel into two fuzzy variables, namely the black and the white. Fuzzy rules are defined to find the edge pixels in the fuzzified image. The resultant edge map may contain some extraneous edges, which are further removed from the edge map by separately examining the intermediate intensity range pixels. Finally, the edge map is improved by finding some left out edge pixels by defining a new membership function for the pixels that have their entire 8-neighbourhood pixels classified as white. We have compared our proposed method with some of the existing standard edge detector operators that are available in the literature on image processing. The quantitative analysis of the proposed method is given in terms of entropy value. Keywords—Edge detection, Edge improvement, Fuzzy rules, Membership function.