A fast line finder for vision-guided robot navigation

There are two basic ways to improve the speed of a low-level vision algorithm: careful code optimization and selective processing. Reducing the computational effort expended on each pixel reduces the time required to process an image by a constant factor. Selective processing on a limited portion of an image using a focus of attention can decrease overall computation by orders of magnitude. A fast pixel-based algorithm is developed that uses these principles to achieve fast extraction of lines for use in vision-guided mobile robot navigation. It builds upon an algorithm for extracting lines by grouping pixels with similar gradient orientation. It allows parametric control of computational resources required to extract lines with particular characteristics