A real-time ellipse detection based on edge grouping

In this paper, we present a efficient algorithm for real-time ellipse detection. Unlike Hough transform algorithm that is computationally intense and requires a higher dimensional parameter space, our proposed method reduces the computational complexity significantly, and accurately detects ellipses in realtime. We present a new method of detecting arc-segments from the image, based on the properties of ellipse. We then group the arc-segments into elliptical arcs in order to estimate the parameters of the ellipse, which are calculated using the least-square method. Our method has been tested and implemented on synthetic and real-world images containing both complete and incomplete ellipses. The performance is compared to existing ellipse detection algorithms, demonstrating the robustness, accuracy and effectiveness of our algorithm.