Morphological coding of color images by vector connected filters

This paper deals with the use of the vector levelings for coding color images. This class of morphological connected filters suppresses details but preserves the contours of the remaining objects. If the color images are filtered by independently leveling each color component, new colors may be introduced. In order to avoid this drawback, a total order must be imposed on the color vectors. A comparative study has been drawn for various lexicographical orders in the RGB and the HLS color systems. These filters can be especially useful as a preprocessing step for improving the compression of color images.