A Color Edge Detection Algorithm in RGB Color Space

Edge detection is one of the most commonly used operations in image processing and pattern recognition, the reason for this is that edges form the outline of an object. An edge is the boundary between an object and the background, and indicates the boundary between overlapping objects. This means that if the edges in an image can be identified accurately, all of the objects can be located and basic properties such as area, perimeter, and shape can be measured. Since computer vision involves the identification and classification of objects in an image, edge detection is an essential tool. Efficient and accurate edge detection will lead to increase the performance of subsequent image processing techniques, including image segmentation, object-based image coding, and image retrieval. A color image edge detection algorithm is proposed in this paper. Average maximum color difference value is used to predict the optimum threshold value for a color image and thinning technique is applied to extract proper edges. The proposed method is applied over large database of color images both synthetic and real life images and performance of the algorithm is evident from the results and is comparable with other edge detection algorithms.